LIBRARY  OF   THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Section \..). .  ^^.  ^ 


(C^utc^  J^ietot^  ^txitB 

CONSISTING  OF   A   SERIES  OF 

DENOMINATIONAL  HISTORIES  PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE   AUSPICES  OF 

THE  AMERICAN  SOCIETY  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY 


(Keneraf  (S^itore 

Rev.  Philip  Schaff,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.       Bishop  John  F.  Hurst,  D.  D.,LL.  D. 
Rt.  Rev.  H.  C.  Potter,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.  Rev.  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.  D. 
Rev.  Geo.  P.  Fisher,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.     Henry  C.  Vedder,  M.  A. 
Rev.  Samuel  M.  Jackson,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Volume  VII 


(American  C^urc^  ^ietorg 

A  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

PROTESTANT 
EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

IN   THE 

UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


BY 

CHARLES  C.  TIFFANY,  D.  D. 

ARCHDEACON  OF  NEW  YORK 


t^t  C^xkiian  literature  Co. 


MDCCCXCV 


Copyright,  1895, 
By  The  Christian  Literature  Company. 


PREFACE. 


The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  is  the  Hneal  and 
legitimate  descendant  of  the  Church  of  England.  It 
represents  in  the  United  States  of  America  Christianity 
as  it  is  received  and  embodied  in  the  Established  Church 
of  Great  Britain.  In  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship  it 
aims  not  to  depart  from  its  august  parent  further  than 
local  circumstances  compel,  but  it  claims  to  be  supreme 
judge  of  the  force  of  circumstances,  and  a  supreme  law  in 
adapting  itself  to  them.  It  derived  its  orders,  it  accepted 
its  liturgy,  it  inherited  its  creeds  and  articles  of  religion, 
from  the  English  Church.  Yet,  notwithstanding  its  foreign 
origin,  it  is  not  a  foreign  church.  Its  history  is  coeval 
with  the  earliest  settlements  of  the  continent,  and  has 
kept  constant  pace  with  all  the  varying  phases  of  national 
development.  In  common  with  all  the  institutions  in  the 
land  which  claim  for  their  permanent  features  a  date  an- 
terior to  the  discovery  of  America,  and  in  the  same  sense, 
this  church  came  from  abroad.  Its  structural  features  did 
not  originate  in  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  nation 
arose,  nor  in  the  fifteenth  century,  when  the  continent  was 
discovered.  They  antedated  these  events  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years.  But  while  thus  transplanted,  the  church  took 
early  and  firm  root  in  American  soil.  It  developed  a  con- 
stitution and  a  life  essentially  American  and  essentially  its 
own.  Its  adherents  claim  that  it  is  peculiarly  fitted  to 
become  the  dominant  church  of  the  continent,  by  reason 


vi  PREFACE. 

of  those  special  features  which  distinguish  it  from  other 
ecclesiastical  bodies.  They  aver  that  it  reflects  in  its  con- 
stitution more  exactly  than  any  other  religious  corpora- 
tion the  fundamental  principles  which  rule  in  our  national 
government,  and  that  it  secures  and  expresses  in  things 
religious  more  completely  than  can  be  found  elsewhere  the 
essential  spirit  of  our  national  life,  "  liberty  protected  by 
law."  "  As  a  nation,"  says  Mr.  George  William  Curtis,  in 
his  oration  on  Mr.  Lowell,  "  we  did  not  invent  the  great 
muniments  of  liberty :  trial  by  jury,  the  habeas  corpus, 
constitutional  restraint,  the  common  school,  of  all  which 
we  were  the  common  heirs  with  civilized  Christendom." 
So  the  Episcopal  Church  did  not  create  episcopacy,  nor 
extemporize  a  liturgy,  nor  invent  a  creed.  To  apply  to 
the  church  what  Mr.  Curtis  again  says  of  the  state,  "  the 
higher  spirit  of  conservatism  was  its  own,  and  it  cherished 
a  reverence  for  antiquity,  a  susceptibility  to  the  value  of 
tradition,  an  instinct  for  continuity  and  development,  an 
antipathy  to  violent  rupture — the  grace  and  charm  and 
value  of  an  established  order." 

•  Like  the  American  people,  who  honor  their  institutions 
as  the  heritage  of  law  and  culture  and  liberty  out  of  past 
ages,  so  the  Episcopal  Church  prizes  its  peculiar  and 
dominant  features  as  the  issue  of  a  sound  historic  growth. 
It  claims  to  preserve,  and  to  have  had  preserved  to  it,  the 
essential  features  of  the  church  of  apostolic  times  in  con- 
tinuous and  legitimate  succession.  It  grounds  its  dogmas 
on  the  original  documents  of  the  apostolic  church  contained 
in  the  New  Testament,  which  is  its  final  arbiter  in  all  doc- 
trinal statements.  It  holds  its  order  of  worship  to  be,  in 
its  structural  features,  identical  with  the  liturgies  of  the 
earliest  and  best  ages.  Yet,  while  holding  firmly  to  the 
past  as  the  vindication  of  its  foundation  principles,  its  aim 
is,  not  to  present  or  represent  an  anachronism  or  to  recon- 


PREFACE.  vii 

Struct  and  reissue  transient  features  and  forms  of  life  which 
the  past  Jias  let  die,  but, to  vindicate  and  apply  to  the  latest 
life  of  the  latest  nation  the  truths  which  have  proved  their 
essential  vitality  by  their  perennial  influence.  This  church 
believes  in  its  future  because  it  believes  in  its  past,  and  out 
of  this  tried  faith  comes  the  confidence  of  its  present.  It 
is  a  church  in  the  nation ;  it  would  fain  be  the  church  of 
the  nation,  not  as  an  enforced  ecclesiastical  establishment, 
but  as  the  chosen  religious  home  of  willing  souls,  con- 
vinced of  the  truths  which  it  proclaims,  and  intent  on  the 
life  which  it  incites. 

To  describe  the  origin  and  trace  the  growth  of  this 
church  is  the  object  of  the  present  volume.  In  its  com- 
position the  author  has  had  the  assistance  of  friends  in  the 
accumulation  of  material,  which  it  is  his  pleasure,  as  it  is 
his  duty,  to  cordially  acknowledge.  His  thanks  are  espe- 
cially due  to  his  diocesan,  the  Rt.  Rev.  H.  C.  Potter,  D.D., 
Bishop  of  New  York,  for  information,  otherwise  inacces- 
sible, concerning  certain  periods  and  phases  of  church  life 
and  character;  to  the  Rt.  Rev.  Leighton  Coleman,  D.D., 
Bishop  of  Delaware,  for  his  courteous  and  ready  help  in 
furnishing  proof-sheets  of  his  own  volume,  "  The  Church 
in  America,"  which  was  just  issuing  from  the  press  as  this 
volume  was  entering  the  printer's  hands;  to  the  Rt.  Rev. 
T.  M.  Clark,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Rhode  Island,  for  the  loan  of 
books  from  his  library  and  pamphlets  of  his  composition ; 
to  Dean  Hoffman,  for  full  access  to  the  library  of  the  Gen- 
eral Theological  Seminary,  and  to  Mr.  Bull,  its  accommo- 
dating librarian,  for  many  civilities  ;  to  Mr.  Edward  Tiffany, 
assistant  librarian  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  for  indi- 
cating and  opening  its  historical  treasures  ;  to  Mr.  Thomas 
Whittaker,  for  the  free  use  of  many  volumes  from  his  valu- 
able church  bookstore.  No.  2  Bible  House,  New  York ;  to 
Mr.  Little,  librarian  of  the  Astor  Library,  for  cordial  assist- 


viii  PREFACE. 

ance ;  and,  perchance  above  all,  to  the  Rev.  William  Tat- 
lock,  D.D.,  rector  of  St.  John's  Church,  Stamford,  Conn., 
for  the  use  of  many  valuable  books  from  the  Lloyd 
Library;  to  the  Rev.  William  R.  Huntington,  D.D.,  rector 
of  Grace  Church,  New  York,  for  helpful  information  con- 
cerning certain  periods  of  the  legislation  of  the  General 
Convention  ;  to  Professor  F.  B.  Dexter,  of  Yale  University, 
for  his  ready  and  gracious  compliance  with  the  request  for 
the  fullest  information  to  be  found  in  the  college  archives 
concerning  the  conversion  of  Rector  Cutler;  and  to  the 
Rev.  Ralph  H.  Baldwin  and  the  Rev.  Edward  L.  Parsons, 
for  invaluable  assistance  in  compiling  the  Bibliography  of 
the  subject. 

No  one  who  attempts  to  write  concerning  the  history 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  can  fail  to  record  his 
sense  of  the  obligation  which  all  historical  students  owe 
to  the  Rt.  Rev.  William  Stevens  Perry,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Iowa,  for  his  laborious  compilation  of  original  material, 
and  many  valuable  essays  on  special  points  of  history, 
collected  in  the  two  large  volumes  of  his  "  History  of  the 
American  Episcopal  Church,  1587— 1883,"  and  in  the  four 
huge  volumes  of  the  Facsimiles  of  Manuscripts,  wherein 
almost  all  valuable  documents  of  the  church's  history  find 
a  place ;  and  for  his  condensed  records  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  General  Conventions,  to  be  found  in  his  "  Hand- 
book of  the  General  Conventions,  1 785-1874,"  and  for  the 
fuller  record,  with  historical  notes  and  documents,  contained 
in  the  three  volumes  of  "A  Half-century  of  the  Legisla- 
tion of  the  American  Church."  The  value  of  the  office  of 
historiographer  of  the  church  is  apparent  as  one  scans 
these  volumes,  as  well  as  when  he  studies  the  "  Contribu- 
tions to  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  United  States  "  of 
the  late  Rev.  Francis  L.  Hawks,  D.D.,  in  the  two  volumes 
which  shed  so  much  light  on  the  history  of  the  Episcopal 


PREFACE.  ix 

Church  in  Virginia  and  Maryland.  Nor  can  one  fail  to 
recognize  what  flashes  of  light  are  thrown  on  certain 
phases  of  this  church's  history  by  the  broad  and  brilliant 
generalizations  of  the  Rev.  S.  D.  McConnell,  D.D.,  in  his 
"  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,"  which  is  as 
full  of  wisdom  as  of  wit.  The  "  History  of  the  American 
Church,"  by  Bishop  Wilberforce,  of  Oxford  and  Winches- 
ter, is  valuable  in  its  account  of  the  colonies,  and  is  re- 
markable throughout  as  the  production  of  one  who  never 
visited  America.  His  unfamiliarity  with  our  republican  in- 
stitutions, however,  makes  his  account  of  the  constitutional 
period  of  less  value.  Canon  Anderson's  "  History  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  Colonies,"  in  three  volumes,  is 
more  full  and  instructive  than  Wilberforce,  and  the  "  Digest 
of  the  Records  of  the  Venerable  S.  P.  G."  is  invaluable  as 
a  source  of  information  concerning  our  colonial  eccle- 
siastical history,  while  "The  Colonial  Era,"  by  Professor 
G.  P.  Fisher,  D.D.,  of  Yale  University,  gives  a  clear  and 
impartial  view  of  the  early  political  events  which  so  vitally 
affected  the  life  of  the  church. 

For  the  post-colonial  period  and  the  formation  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Bishop  White's  "  Memoirs  of 
the  Church"  furnish  a  running  comment  on  the  consti- 
tutional movement  by  the  chief  actor  in  it,  which  is  a 
treasure-house  of  information,  indispensable  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  time ;  and  the  "  Life  of  Bishop  Seabury  " 
gives  much  interesting  matter  supplementary  to  Bishop 
White's  volume.  For  the  subsequent  history  the  "  Jour- 
nals "  of  the  General  and  Diocesan  Conventions,  together 
with  the  many  memoirs  of  the  chief  actors  in  it,  are  the 
principal  sources  of  information. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface v 

Bibliography xvi 

CHAP.  I. — Earliest  Attempts  at  English  Colonization. — Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert's  Expedition. — Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  Roanoke 

Colony. — Expeditions  of  Pring  and  Waymouth 3 

CHAP.  II. — The  Virginia  Charter  and  Settlement. — Chaplain 
Robert  Hunt. — Religious  Interest  in  England. — Lord  De  la  Warr's 
Administration. — Laws  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale. — House  of  Burgesses, 
1619. — The  Bishop  of  London's  Jurisdiction. — Treatment  of  Puri- 
tans in  Virginia. — The  King  Annuls  the  Colonial  Charter. — Mis- 
sionaries Sent  to  Virginia. — Proscription  of  Quakers. — Commissary 
Blair. — College  of  William  and  Mary. — Church  Statistics,  1720. — 
Characteristics  of  Life  in  Virginia. — Dissent  in  Virginia. — Evan- 
gelistic Labors  of  Morgan. — Baptists  and  Methodists. — Effect  of 
the  Revolutionary  War. — Incorporation  of  the  Church. — First  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Convention. — Deputies  Appointed. — Dr.  Griffith 

Elected  Bishop 1 1 

CHAP.  III. — The  Colonial  Church  in  Maryland. — Lord  Balti- 
more, Proprietary. — Act  of  Religious  Freedom,  1649. — First  Men- 
tion of  English  Church,  1676. — English  Church  Established  in 
Maryland. — Dr.  Bray  Appointed  Commissary. — Maryland  Act  of 
Establishment. — Influence  of  Commissary  Bray. — A  Minister's 
Work  and  Pay. — x'Vlienation  from  the  Church. — The  Clergy  and  the 
Legislature  at  Odds. — Value  of  Maryland  Livings. — Effect  of  the 
Coming  Revolution. — Dr.  Jonathan   Boucher. — The  Church  after 

the  Revolution 5^ 

CHAP.  IV. — The  Colonial  Church  in  New  England,  Outside  of 
Connecticut. — John  Lyford  and  Thomas  Morton. — Rev.  William 
Blaxton. — First  Church  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H. — Genesis  of  the 
Puritans. — Puritan  Rejection  of  Episcopacy. — Building  of  King's 
Chapel. — Mission  of  Keith  and  Talbot. — Controversies  of  John 
Checkley. — Building  of  Christ  Church,  Boston. — Trinity  Church, 
Boston. — Christ  Church,  Cambridge. — The  Narragansett  Church. 
— Church  Life  in  Rhode  Island. — St.  John's  Church,  Providence, 


xii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

R.  I. — Church  Life  in  Rhode  Island. — St.  John's  Church,  Ports- 
mouth, N.  H. — The  Church  in  New  Hampshire. — The  Church  in 
Maine. — Church  Congregations  in  Maine 84 

CHAP.  V. — The  Colonial  Church  in  Connecticut. — Introduction 
of  the  Church,  1706. — Conversion  of  the  Rector  of  Yale  College. — 
Address  to  the  Trustees  of  Yale  College. — Rector  Cutler's  Conver- 
sion.— Conversion  of  Johnson. — Opposition  to  Episcopacy. — Mr. 
Johnson  and  Dean  Berkeley. — Conversion  of  Bishop  Seabury's 
Father.  —  Controversies.  —  Rev.  George  Whitefield.  —  Effect  of 
Whitefield's  Preaching. — Causes  for  Desiring  a  Bishop. — Johnson 
Made  President  of  King's  College. — Charge  of  Proselyting. — Effect 
of  the  Stamp  Act,  1765. — Dr.  Chandler's  "Appeal  to  the  Public." 
— Last  Efforts  before  the  Revolution. — The  Church  During  the 
Revolution. — Suspension  of  Services. — The  Church  at  Close  of 
Revolution 122 

CHAP.  VI. — The  Colonial  Church  in  New  York.— Enghsh  Con- 
quest of  New  York. — Act  of  1693  ;  Governor  Fletcher. — Call  of 
Mr.  Vesey  to  Trinity  Church. — The  Building  of  Trinity  Church. — 
Church  Life  in  New  York. — The  English  and  Dutch  Churches. — 
The  Church  in  Albany. — Mr.  Elias  Neau's  Work  for  Negroes. — 
The  Building  of  St.  George's  Chapel. — Founding  of  King's  (Colum- 
bia) College. — St.  Paul's  Chapel. — New  York  Clergy  During  the 
Revolution. — Dr.  Inglis,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church. — Rev.  Samuel 
Provoost,  Rector  of  Trinity 162 

CHAP.  VII. — The  Colonial  Church  in  New  Jersey. — Keith's 
and  Talbot's  Coming. — John  Talbot. — Talbot's  Alleged  Consecra- 
tion.— Talbot  and  Urmston. — Talbot's  Character  and  Labors. — 
Thomas  Bradley  Chandler. — Church  Condition  before  the  Revolu- 
tion      190 

CHAP.  VIII.— The  Colonial  Church  in  Pennsylvania  and 
Delaware. — Penn  and  his  Settlement. — First  Rectors  of  Christ 
Church. — Relations  to  Swedish  Churches. — Rev.  Richard  Welton. 
—Christ  Church,  Philadelphia.— St.  Peter's  Church,  Philadelphia. 
— Drs.  Duche  and  White  as  Rectors. — St.  Paul's  Church,  Phila-. 
delphia. — Old  Swedes'  Church,  Wilmington 204 

CHAP.  IX. — The  Colonial  Church  in  the  Carolinas. — The  Con- 
stitution of  John  Locke. — St.  Philip's  Church,  Charleston. — Mis- 
sionaries Thomas  and  Le  Jean. — St.  Michael's  Church,  Charleston. 
— Support  of  the  Country  Churches. — Commissary  Garden  and 
Whitefield. — The  Laity  in  South  Carolina. — Missionaries  in  North 
Carolina. — Privations  and  Labors  of  Missionaries. — The  Vestry  Act 
of  1 741. — The  Rev.  Clement  Hall. — Governor  Tryon's  Influence. — 
Rev.  Edward  Jones    222 

CHAP.  X. — The  Colonial  Church  in  Georgia. — Charles  Wesley 
in  Georgia. — John  Wesley  in  Georgia. — George  Whitefield  in  Geor- 


CONTENTS.  XIU 

PAGE 

gia.— Bethesda  Orphan  House  Founded.— Bethesda  College  Rule. 
— Whitefield's  Death.— Church  Progress  Slow  and  Meager. — 
Church  Exterminated  by  the  Revolution 249 

CHAP.  XI. — Summary  of  the  Colonial  Church  and  its  Les- 
sons.— Evils  of  State  Patronage. — An  American  Episcopate  Fa- 
vored.— Individual  Requests  for  Bishops. — Combined  Action  to 
Secure  Bishops. — Puritan  and  Presbyterian  Objections. — Popular 
Opposition  to  Bishops.— Origin  of  the  S.  P.  G.— Work  Accom- 
plished by  the  S.  P.  G. — Dean  Berkeley's  American  Project. — 
Berkeley's  Influence  in  America 266 

CHAP.  XII. — Ecclesiastical  Action  Preliminary  to  the  Forma- 
tion OF  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. — Action  in  Penn- 
sylvania.— "Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches." — White's  Position 
on  Episcopacy. — White's  Advocacy  of  Lay  Representation. — 
White's  Early  Life  and  Education. — White's  American  Spirit. — 
White's  Views. — The  Name  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. — Eccle- 
siastical Action  in  Maryland. — Dr.  William  Smith  Elected  Bishop.  ' 
— Provost  William  Smith,  D.D. — Dr.  Smith  and  the  Maryland 
Episcopate. — Seabury,  Bishop  Elect  of  Connecticut. — Seabury  Seek- 
ing Consecration. — Obstacles  in  Seabury's  Way. — The  Nonjuring 
Bishops  of  Scotland. — Seabury's  Application  to  the  Nonjurors. — 
Seabury's  Consecration  at  Aberdeen. — Bishop  Seabury  and  Charles 
Wesley 287 

CHAP.  XIII. — Formation  and  Adoption  of  the  Constitution 
AND  THB  Prayer-book  (1784-89). — Meeting  in  Philadelphia. — 
Meeting  in  New  York. — Letters  to  the  New  York  Convention. — 
Fundamental  Constitutional  Principles. — Pennsylvania  Convention 
Called. — Convention  in  South  Carolina. — Letters  of  Parker  and  Sea- 
bury.— The  First  General  Convention. — The  "  Proposed  Book." — 
The  Constitution. — The  Address  to  the  English  Bishops. — Friendly 
Action  of  John  Adams. — Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Provoost. — Troubles  in 
the  General  Convention. — Reply  to  the  English  Bishops. — Three 
Bishops  Elected. — White  and  Provoost  sail. — Consecration  of  White 
and  Provoost. — Connecticut  Elects  a  Coadjutor  Bishop. — Bishop 
Seabury's  Policy. — Defection  of  King's  Chapel. — General  Conven- 
tion of  1789. — Parker's  Proposition  Concerning  Bass. — Seabury 
Consents  to  the  Constitution. — New  England  Joins  the  Convention. 
— The  Prayer-book. — Omitted  Rubrics. — The  Communion  Office   .    327 

CHAP.  XIV. — A  Period  of  Suspended  Animation  and  Feeble 
Growth  (1789-1811). — Faults  of  the  Church. — Church  Decline  in 
Virginia.— The  Church  in  the  South.— The  Church  in  the  Middle 
States. — Bishop  Benjamin  Moore. — Death  of  Bishop  Seabury.^ 
The  Thirty-nine  Articles. —  Canons  Concerning  Morals. —  The 
Church  and  the  Methodists. — Dr.  Coke  and  Bishop  White. — Dr. 
Coke  and  Bishop  Seabury. — General  Convention  of  1808 385 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAP.  XV. — From  the  Consecration  of  Bishop  Hobart  to  the 
Death  of  Bishop  White  (1811-36). — John  Henry  Hobart. — 
Consecration  of  Hobart. — Hobart's  Episcopate. — Death  of  Bishop 
Hobart. — The  Eastern  Diocese. — Bishop  Griswold. — Labors  of 
Griswold. — Richard  Channing  Moore. — Moore  Elected  Bishop. — 
Moore's  Virginia  Episcopate. — His  Ecclesiastical  Position. — Other 
Bishops. — Bishop  Philander  Chase. — Bishop  Chase  in  Illinois. — 
General  Theological  Seminary. — Virginia  Theological  Seminary. — 
Church  Colleges. — Missionary  Organization. — Foreign  Missions. — 
Bishop  Ravenscroft. — Various  Episcopal  Consecrations. — Death  of 
Bishop  White. — Bishop  White's  Funeral ■ 410 

CHAP.  XVI. — From  the  Death  of  Bishop  White  to  the  End 
OF  the  Civil  War  (1835-65). — Expansion  of  the  Episcopate. — 
Missionary  Organizations. — Church  Parties. — The  Evangelicals. 
— Evangelical  Theology. — Prominent  Low-churchmen. — High- 
churchmanship. — High-church  Theology. — Bishop  G.  W.  Doane. — 
The  Carey  Ordination. — General  Convention  of  1844. — Ecclesias- 
tical Trials. — Defection  of  Bishop  Ives. — The  Memorial  Moverflent. 
— William  Augustus  Muhlenberg. — Scope  of  the  Memorial. — Bishop 
Alonzo  Potter. — Fate  of  the  Memorial. — Kemper  and  Breck. — Sepa- 
ration by  the  War. — Church  in  the  Confederacy. — Loyal  Attitude 
of  the  Church. — Bishop  J.  H.  Hopkins. — Reunion 456 

CHAP.  XVII. — From  the  Reunion  of  the  Church  to  the  Pres- 
ent Time  (1865-95). — Theological  Seminaries. — Collegiate  Insti- 
tutions.— University  of  the  South. — Preparatory  Schools. — Do- 
mestic Missions. — Foreign  Missions. — The  Mexican  Mission. — 
Foreign  Churches. — The  Woman's  Auxiliary. — Deaconesses. — 
Cathedrals. — Ritualism. — Controversy  Concerning  Ritual. — Canon 
Concerning  Ritual. — Reformed  Episcopal  Church. — American 
Church  Congress. — Broad-churchmen. — Broad-churchmanship. — 
Edward  A.  Washburn. — Phillips  Brooks.— Parochial  .Missions. — 
Church  Temperance  Society. — Lambeth  Conferences. — Prayer-book 
Revision. — The  Memorial  Vindicated. — Declaration  Concerning 
Unity.— The  Quadrilateral 5o5 

Appendix S^i 

Index ■• 5^5 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 


C.  C.  TIFFANY,  D.D., 

Archdeacon  of  New  York. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY, 


I.  General  History. 


Adams,  John,  ll'orks.  With  Life,  Notes,  etc.,  by  C.  F.  Adams,  lo  vols., 
Boston,  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1850-56. 

Arnold,  Samuel  Greene,  History  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Provi- 
dence Plantations,  idjd-ifgo.      2  vols.,  New  York,   1859,  i860. 

Bancroft,  George,  History  of  the  United  States.  6  vols.,  New  York  and 
London,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1883,  1884. 

Doyle,  J.  A.,  I'he  English  in  America.  Vols,  i.-iii.  London,  Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.,  1882-87. 

Fisher,  George  Park,  D.D.,  LL.D,,  I'he  Colonial  Era.  New  York, 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1892. 

Fiske,  John,  The  Beginnings  of  A'ew  England;  or.  The  Puritan  Theocracy 
in  its  Relation  to  Civil  atid  Religious  Liberty.      1894. 

,  The  Critical  Period  of  American  History.      1889. 

,  The  Discovery  of  America.     Boston   and  New  York,  Houghton, 

Mifflin  &  Co.,  1894. 

Gambrall,  Rev.  Theodore  C,  Studies  in  the  Civil,  Social,  and  Ecclesi- 
astical History  of  Early  Maryland.  (Lectures  before  the  Agricultural 
College  of  Maryland.)     New  York,  1893. 

Grahame,  J.,  The  History  of  the  United  States  of  North  America,  from  the 
Plantation  of  the  British  Colonies  till  their  Revolt  and  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence.    4  vols.,  London,  1836, 

Sakluyt,  R.,  The  Principal  Navigations,  Voyages,  Traffiques,  and  Dis- 
co^'cries  of  the  English  Nation,  etc.  Vol.  iii.,  To  all  Parts  of  America. 
3  vols.,  London,  1559,  1560. 

Ijodge,  H.  C,  A  Short  History  of  the  English  Colonies  in  America.  New 
York,  1 88 1. 

McMaster,  John  Bach,  A  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  from 
the  Revolution  to  the  Civil  War.     4  vols..  New  York,  1883-95. 

Macsparran,  James,  D.D.,  America  Dissected ;  being  d  Full  Account  of 
all  the  American  Colonies,  published  as  a  Caution  to  Unsteady  People 
loho  may  be  tempted  to  leave  their  own  cojtntry.      Dublin,  1 753- 

Palfrey,  J.  Gorham,  History  of  New  England.  5  vols.,  Boston,  Little, 
Brown  &  Co.,  1890. 

Sabine,  Lorenzo,  Loyalists  of  the  Atuerican  Revolution.  With  Historical 
Essay.     2  vols.,  Boston,  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1864. 

Stevens,  William  B.,  D.D.,  History  of  Georgia,  from  its  First  Discovery 
by  Europeans  to  ijgS.      2  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1847-59. 

Winsor,  Justin,  A  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America.  8  vols., 
Boston  and  New  York,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1884-89. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  XVll 

II.  Church  History. 
I.  General. 

Anderson,  J.  S.  M.,  M.A.,  The  History  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the 
Colonies.     3  vols.,  2d  ed.,  London,  Rivingtons,  1856. 

Aycrigg,  B.,  Memorials  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Chtnrh  and  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church.      New  York,  1880. 

Carroll,  H.  X.,  LiLi.D.,  The  Religions  Forces  of  the  United  States.  (Vol.  i. 
of  "American  Church  History  Series.")  New  York,  Christian  Litera- 
ture Co.,  1893. 

Caswall,  Rev.  Henry,  M.A.,  America  and  the  American  Chnrch.  Lon- 
don, 1851. 

,  American  Church  and  A??ierican  Uttion. 

Church  Almanacs  : 

The  American  Church  Almanac  and  Year-book.     65  vols..  New  York, 

James  Pott  &  Co.,  1830-95. 
The  Protestant   Episcopal  Almanac  and  Parochial  List.     41  vols., 
New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1854-95. 

Coit,  Thomas  Wintlirop,  D.D.,  Puritanism  ;  or,  A  Churchman'' s  De- 
fense against  its  Aspersions.      New  York,  1845. 

Coleman,  Rt,  Rev,  Leighton,  S.T.D.,  LL.D.,  The  Church  in  Amer- 
ica. ("National  Churches  Series.")  New  York,  James  Pott  &  Co., 
1895. 

Denison,  S.  D.,  History  of  the  Foreign  Missiona7y  Worh  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  1821—jj.      New  York,  1 871. 

Facsimiles  of  Church  Documents  :  Papers  issued  by  the  Historical  Club  of  the 
American  Church.      Privately  printed,  1874-79. 

Hawkins,  Ernest,  B.D.,  Historical  N^otices  of  the  Missions  of  the  Church 
of  England  in  the  A'^orth  American  Colonies,  etc.,  from  Documents  of  the 
S.  P.  G.     London,  1845. 

Hawks,  Rev.  Francis  L.,  Contributions  to  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of 
the  United  States  of  America.  2  vols.:  i.,  Virginia;  ii.,  Maryland. 
New  York,  1836-39. 

and  Perry,  Rev.  W.  S.,  Documentary  History  of  the  Protestant 

Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America.     2  vols.,  New  York, 
1862-64. 

and  ,  Journals  of  the  General  Convetttion  of  the  Protestant 


Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  from  ij8j  to  iSjj,  in- 
clusive. Published  by  order  of  the  General  Convention,  with  illustrative 
Historical  Notes  and  Appendices,  i  vol.,  Philadelphia,  1861.  (Never 
completed.      See  Perry,  "A  Half-century  of  Legislation.") 

Humphreys,  David,  D.D.  {Secretary,  etc).  An  Historical  Account  of 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts.  London, 
1730;   reprint.  New  York,  1853. 

McConnell,  S,  D.,  D.D.,  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,  from 
the  Planting  of  the  Colonies  to  the  End  of  the  Civil  War.  New  York, 
Thomas  Whittaker,  1890. 

Ifeal,  Daniel,  M.A.,  History  of  the  Puritans.     2  vols.,  New  York,  1844. 

Perry,  Rev.  George  G.,  M.A.,  The  History  of  the  Chmrh  of  England. 
With  Appendix  containing  Sketches  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States,  by  J,  A.  Spencer.  New  York,  Harper  &  Brothers, 
1879. 


xviil  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Perry,  Rt.  Rev.  William  S.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  A  Half-century  of  Legis- 
lation :  Journals  of  the  General  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Chn7rh  in  the  United  States,  lyS^-iSjj.  With  Historical  Notes  and 
Docinnents.  3  vols.,  Claremont,  N.  H.,  1874;  Milwaukee,  Young 
Churchman  Co. 

,   Handbook  of  the  General  Convention   of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 

Church,  giving  its  History  and  Constitution,  lyS^—iSSo.      2d  ed..  New 
York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1881  ;   3d  ed.,  Ij8^-i8g2,  in  preparation. 

,   The  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,  ij8j—iSSj.      With 

Monographs.      2  vols.,  Boston,  Osgood  &  Co.,  1885. 
-,   Historical  Collections  relating  to   the  American    Colonial  Church. 


4  vols.  :  i.,   Virginia;  ii.,  Pennsylvania;  iii.,  Massachusetts;  iv.,  Mary- 
land and  Delaware.     Printed  for  subscribers,  Hartford,  1870. 
Protestant  Episcopal  Historical  Society,  Collections  of,  for  the  Years  iSji—jj. 

2  vols..  New  York,  Stanford  &  Swords,  1851-53. 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  Classified  Digest 

of  the  Records  of  the,  i'joi-i8()2.      London,  1893. 
Special  Articles  in  : 

McClintock  (S^  Strong'' s  Cyclopcedia  of  Biblical,  Theological,  and  Eccle- 
siastical Literature.     New  York,  Harper  &  ^Brothers,  1867-81. 
Supplement,  1891. 
The    Church    Cyclopa:dia.     Edited   by    Rev.   A.   A.    Benton,    M.A. 

Philadelphia,  M.  R.  Hamersley  &  Co.,  1885. 
The  Encyclopirdia  Britannica.     9th  ed..  New  York,  Charles   Scrib- 
ner's  Sons,  1878-89. 
Sprague,  Rev.  William  B.,  D.D.,  Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit. 

9  vols.  :  v.,  Episcopalian.     New  York,  Carters,  1859-69. 
Stevens,  Abel,  D.D.,  Histoty  of  Methodism.     3  vols..  New  York,  Hunt  & 

Eaton,  1858,  1859,  and  1861. 
White,  Rt.  Rev.  William,  D.D.,  Memoirs  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States.  Edited,  with  Notes  and  a  Sketch  of  the 
Origin  and  Progress  of  the  Colonial  Church,  by  the  Rev.  B.  F.  de  Costa, 
New  York,  E.  P.  Button  &  Co.,  1880. 
Wilberforce,  Samuel  {Lord  Bishop  of  Oxford),  A  History  of  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church  in  America.     3d  ed.,  London,  1856. 

2.   Special  Histories. 

Connecticut,  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in,  from  ibj^  to  iSb^.  By  Rev. 
E.  E.  Beardsley,  D.D.,  LL.D.  4th  ed.,  2  vols..  New  York,  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.,  1883. 

Dutchess  County,  N'.  Y.,  The  Foundins^ofthe  Episcopal  Church  in,  i7SS—i8g^. 
By  Rev.  H.  O.  Ladd,  M.A.     Fishkill,  N.  Y.,  1895. 

Eastern  Diocese,  History  of.     By  C.  R.  Batchelder.     Claremont,  N.  H.,  1876. 

Louisiana,  The  Diocese  of:  Some  of  its  History,  i8j8—88.  Compiled  by  Rev. 
H.  C.  Duncan,  M.A.     New  Orleans,  1888. 

Maifie,  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  State  of.  By  Rev.  J.  Greenleaf.  Ports- 
mouth, 1821. 

Alary  land.  Church  Life  in  Colonial.  By  Rev.  Theodore  C.  Gambrall,  A.M. 
Baltimore,  1885. 

,  Commernoration  of  the  One  Hundredth  An7iiversary  of  the  Oiganiza- 

tion  of  the  Diocese  of,  Baltimore,  May  2g  and ^o,  i88j.     Baltimore,  1883. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  xix 

Maryland,  Toleration ;  or,    Sketches  of  the  Early  History  of,   to   the    Year 

j6jo.     By  Rev.  Ethan  Allen,  D.D.     Baltimore,  1855. 
New  E7igland,  Pages  from  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of.     By  Rt.  Rev.  George 

Burgess,  D.D.      Boston,  Dutton  &  Co.,  1862. 
IVew  York,  The  Centennial  Histoiy  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 

Diocese  of,  ijS^-iSS^.     Edited  by  James  Grant  Wilson.     New  York, 

D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1886. 
,  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in.     By  Rt.  Rev.  H.  C.  Potter. 

(See  "  Memorial  History  of  the  City  of  New  York, "  edited  by  James 

Grant  Wilson.     New  York,  1893.) 
North  Carolina,   Sketches  of  Church  History  in.     Wilmington,  William  L. 

de  Rosset,  Jr.,  1892. 
South  Carolina,  An  Historical  Account  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 

South  Carolina,  from  the  First  Settlement  of  the  Province  to  the  War  of 

the  Revolution.     By  Frederick  Dalcho.     Charleston,  S.  C,  A.  E.  Fuller, 

1820. 
Texas,  Historic  Records  of  the  Church  in  the  Diocese  of,  during  the  Rebellion. 

New  York,  Gray  &  Green,  1865. 
Vermont,  First  Centu)y  of  the  Church  in.     By  Rev.  A.  H.  Bailey,  D.D.    (See 

"Journal"  of  the  Convention,  1890.) 
■,  The  Documentary  History  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Chtirch  in  the 

Diocese  of,  lygo-iSjs.     New  York,  Pott  &  Amery,  1870. 
Virginia,  Addresses  and  Historical  Papers  before  the  Centennial  Council  of 

the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Diocese  of.  May  20-24,  ^^^S- 

New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1885. 
,  Old  Churches,  Ministers,  and  Families  of.      By  Bishop  Meade.      2 

vols.,  Philadelphia,  Lippincott  &  Co.,  1857. 
Westchester  County,  N.  Y.,  History  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in, 
from  its  Foimdation  (i6gj)  to  i8^j.     By  Robert  Bolton,  M.A.     New 

York,  Stanford  &  Swords,  1855. 


3.  Local  Histories. 

Boston,  A  History  of  King's  Chapel  /«,  the  First  Episcopal  Church  ifi  New 
England.  Co?nprising  N'otices  of  the  Introduction  of  Episcopacy  into  the 
Northern  Colonies.  By  F.  W.  P.  Greenwood.  Boston,  Ticknor  &  Co., 
1833- 

Bi-ooklyn,  N.  Y.,  St.  Aftn's  Church,  f-om  1^84  to  1S4J.      Brooklyn,  1845. 

Burlington,  N.  J.,  History  of  the  Church  in.  By  G.  M.  Hills,  D.D.  Pub- 
lished by  the  Author,  Trenton,  N.  J.,  1876. 

Elizabethtowtt,  N.  J.,  History  of  St.  John's  Church,  from  lyoj  to  the  Present 
Time.     By  Samuel  A.  Clark,  D.D.     Philadelphia,  1857. 

Jamaica,  Long  Island,  Antiquities  of  the  Parish  Church.  By  Henry  Onder- 
donk,  Jr.     Jamaica,  1880. 

Kenyan  Book,  The.     By  Rev.  Dr.  Bodine,  ex-President  of  Kenyon  College. 

King's  Handbook  of  Notable  Episcopal  Churches  in  the  United  States.  By 
G.  W.  Shinn.     Boston,  Moses  King,  1889. 

Marietta,  O.,  The  History  of  St.  Luke's  Church.  By  Wilson  Waters,  M.A. 
Marietta,  O.,  1884. 

Narragansett,  R.  /.,  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in.  By  W.  Updike. 
New  York,  H.  M.  Onderdonk,  1847. 


XX  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

New  London,  Conn.,  Annals  of  St.  James's  Church  for  One  Hundred  and 
Fifty  Years.     By  Robert  A.  Hallam,  D.D.,  Rector.      Hartford,  1873. 

New  York,  History  of  the  Church  of  Zion  and  St.   Timothy,  ijgy-iSg^.     By 
David  Clarkson.     New  York  and  London,  1894. 

,  Histoty  of  the  Churches  in  the   City  of     By  Jonathan  Greenleaf. 

New  York,  E.  French,  1846. 

,  History  of  Trinity  Parish.      By  Rev.  Morgan   Dix,  S.T.D.      (See 

"  Memorial  History  of  the  City  of  New  York,"  edited  by  James  Grant 
Wilson.      New  York,  1893.) 

,  Memorials  of  St.  Thomas'' s  Church.     Discourses  by  Rev.  W.  F.  Mor- 
gan, Rector.     New  York,  1882. 

. ,  Pecollections  of  St.  PauTs  Chapel.     By  Rev.  Morgan  Dix.      New 

York,  Huntington  &  Son,  1867. 
-,   The  Earliest  Churches  of,  and  its  Vicinity.      By  G.  P.  Disosway, 


M.A.     New  York,  J.  G.  Gregory,  1865. 
,   Threescore  and  Ten:    The  Story  of  St.  Philip'' s   Church.     A  Dis- 
course by  Rev.  B.  F.  de  Costa.     New  York,  1889. 
Newport,  R.  I.,  Annals  of  Tritiity  Church.     By  G.  C.  Mason.     Newport, 

R.  I.,  George  H.  Carr,  1890. 
Perth  Am  boy,  N.  J.,  Historical  N^otices  of  St.  Peter's  Church  in  the  City  of. 

By  Rev.  James  Chapman.      Elizabethtown,  N.  J.,  1830. 
Philadelphia,   Pa.,   An    Historical  Account  of,  ibgs-1841.      By  Benjamin 

Dorr,  D.D.     New  York,  1841. 
Portland,  Me.,  Sketch  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in,  from  lydj  to 

the  Present  Time.      By  Rt.  Rev.  W.  S.  Perry.      Portland,  1864. 
Richmond,  Fa.,  History  and  Reminiscences  of  the  Monumental  Church,  Rich- 

viond,  frotn  181 4  to  iSjS.     By  George  D.  Fisher.    Richmond,  Whittet  & 

Shepperson,  1880. 
South  Carolina,  Sketch  of  the  Parish  Church  of  St.  Michael  in  the  P)-ovince 

of.      Charleston,  S.  C,  Isaac  Hammond,  1887. 
Wilmington,  Del.,  Record  of  Holy  Trinity  (Old  Swedes')  Church.      Edited 

by  Horace  Burr.     Historical  Society  of  Delaware,  1890. 


III.  Biography. 

Andrews,  Rev.  C.  W.,  D.D.,  Memoir  of.     By  Rev.  Cornelius  Walker, 

D.D.      New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1877. 
Bedell,  Rev.  Gregory  T.,  D.D;,  Metnoir  of     By  Stephen   H.  Tyng. 

Philadelphia,  1836. 
Bedell,  William,  D.D.,  Life  of     By  Rev.  H.  J.  M.  Mason,  D.D.     Lon- 
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Breck,  James  Lloyd,  D.D.,  The  Life  of    By  Charles  Breck,  D.D.    New 

York,  E.  &  J.  B.  Young  &  Co.,  1886. 
Brooks,  Phillips:   A   Sermon.     By  Arthur  Brooks,  D.D.     New  York, 

Harper  &  Brothers,  1893. 
Burgess,  Rt.  Rev,  G-eorge,  D.D.,  First  Bishop  of  Maine,  Memoir  of 

the  Life  of.      By  Rev.  Alexander  Burgess,  D.D.     Philadelphia,  Clanten, 

Remsen  &  Haffelfinger,  1869. 
Chase,  Rt.  Rev.  Carlton,  D.D.,  First  Bishop  of  Ne^u  Hampshire,  1844- 

70,  Memorials  of.      With  a  Biographical  Sketch.      Claremont,  N.  H. 
Chase,  Rt.  Rev.  Philander,  Reminiscences  of     2d  ed.,  Boston,  1848. 


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Chase,  Rt.  Rev.  Philander,  Extracts  frotn  the  Ret7iinisceiices  of.  Bos- 
ton, 1874. 

Clark,  Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  M.,  D.D.,  Reminiscences,  New  York,  Thomas 
Whittaker,  1895. 

Croes, "Risixo^, 0/  Ne^u  Jersey,  Life  of .   By  John  N.Norton.   New  York,  1859. 

Croswell,  Rev.  William,  D.D.,  Memoir  of.  By  his  Father,  Rev.  Harry 
Croswell,  D.D.      New  York,  1853. 

Cum.mins,  George  David,  D.D.,  First  Bishop  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal 
Church.     By  his  Wife.     New  York,  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co. 

Cutler,  Beiijam.in  C,  D.D.,  Sketch  of  the  Ministry  of.  By  S.  H.  Tyng, 
D.D.     New  York,  1863. 

Davies,  Rev.  Thomas  Allen,  A  Biographical  Sketch  of  the,  Missionary 
of  the  S.  P.  G.  in  Several  of  the  Towns  of  Litchfield  County,  Conn., 
ijbi-bb.     By  a  Minister  of  the  Country.     New  Haven,  1843. 

Dehon,  Rt.  Rev.  Theodore,  D.D.,  Late  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  Diocese  of  South  Carolina,  An  Essay  on  the  Life  of. 
By  C.  E.  Gadsden,  D.D.     Charleston,  S.  C,  1883. 

Doane,  George  Washington,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Life  and  Writings  of  By 
his  Son,  William  C.  Doane.  4  vols.,  New  York  and  London,  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  i860. 

Dyer,  Rev.  Herman,  D.D.,  Records  of  an  Active  Life.     New  York,  1886. 

Griswold,  Rt.  Rev.  A.  V.,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  Eastern  Diocese,  Memoir  of  the  Life  of  By  J.  S.  Stone, 
D.D.     Philadelphia,  Stavely  &  McCalla,  1844. 

Hawks,  Francis  L.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  By  Rev. 
N.  S.  Richardson,  D.D.      New  York,  1867. 

Hobart,  Bishop,  Early  Years  of  the  Late.  By  Rev.  John  McVickar,  D.D. 
New  York,  1834. 

,  John  Henry,  D.D.,  Professional  Years  of ;  being  a  Sequel  to  his 

Early  Years.      By  Rev.  John  McVickar.      New  York,  1836. 

Memoirs  of  Bishop.     (In  the  "  Works  of  Rt.  Rev.  J.  H.  Hobart." 


Vol.  iv.,  New  York,  1833.)     By  Rev.  William  Berrian,  D.D. 
Hopkins,  John  Henry,  S.T.D.,  "Champion  of  the  Cross;  "  being  the  Life 

of,   including  Extracts  and   Selections  from   his    Writings.      By   Rev. 

Charles  F.  Sweet.     New  York,  1894. 
,  Rt.  Rev.  J.  H.,  Life  of.     By  his  Sons.     New  York,  Huntington 

&  Co. 
Hotchkin,   Rev.   Samuel  F.,  M.A.,  Comitry  Clergy  of  Pennsylvania. 

Philadelphia,  1890. 

,  Early  Clergy  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delawa7-e.     Philadelphia,  1890. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  D.D.,  Life  and  Correspondence  of.     By  E.  Edwards 

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LL.D.     New  York,  Hurd  &  Houghton,"  1876. 
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Thomas  Whittaker,  1892. 
Lee,  Alfred,  First  Bishop  of  Delaruare:   Biographical  Sketch,  Memorial 

Sermon,  etc.      Philadelphia,  1888. 
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,  Bt,   Rev.   William,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant   Episcopal 

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1892. 
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York,  Harper  &  Brothers,  1880. 
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1891. 
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Life  of      By  Orlando  Hutton,  D.D.      \Vashington,  1890. 
Polk,  Leonidas,  Bishop  and  General.     By  William  M.  Polk,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

2  vols.,  London  and  New  York,  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1893. 
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M.  A.  de  Wolfe  Howe,  D.D.     Philadelphia,  J.  B.  Lippincott  cS:  Co.,  1871. 
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by  their  Oiinier.     Aberdeen,  J.  &  J.  P.  Edmond  &  Spark,  1884. 
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Beardsley,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
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tioti  held  at  St.  PauVs  Cathedral,  L.ondon,  the  f out-teen th  day  of  A^ov em- 
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1892. 

Smith,  Rev.  William,  D.D,,  Life  and  Correspondence  of.  First  Pror'ost 
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Thomas  Whittaker,  1890. 

Stevens,  Rt.  Rev.  William  Bacon,  D.D.,  LL.D,,  A  Discourse  Com- 
memorative  of  the  Life  and  Sendees  of,  February  5,  1888.  By  M.  A. 
de  W.  Howe.     Reading,  Pa.,  1888. 

Turner,  Rev.  Samuel  H.,  D.D.,  Autobiography  of.  New  York,  A.  D.  F. 
Randolph,  1863. 

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a?id  History  of  St.  George^ s  Church,  A\'7o  Yorle,  to  the  Close  of  his  Rector- 
ship.    Compiled  by  Charles  R.  Tyng.     New  York,  1890. 


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Wesley,  Rev.  John,  M.A.,  The  Life  and  Times  of.     By  Rev.  L.  Tyer- 

man.     3  vols.,  6th  ed.,  London,  Hodder  &  Stoughton,  1890. 
Wesley,  John.     By  I.  H.  Overton,  M.A.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1891. 
Whipple  and  Walker,  Bishops,  "  Bearers  of  the  Lamp  of  Grace.''     By 

Rev.  T.  Lloyd  Williams,  B.A.     Comprising  Sketches.     London,  Skef- 

fington  &  Son,  1894. 
White,  Rt.  Rev.  William,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  Life  of.     By 

John  H.  Norton,  M.A.      New  York,  1856. 
,  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of     By  Rev.  Bird  Wilson,  D.D.     Philadelphia, 

1839. 
-,   The  Life  and  Times  of  Bishop.      By  Julius  H.  Ward.      New  York, 


Dodd,  Mead  cSc  Co.,  i^ 
Whitefield,  Rev.  George,  The  Life,  of     By  Rev.  L.  Tyerman.     2  vols., 

London,  Hodder  &  Stoughton,  1890. 
Whittingham,  W.  R.,  Life  of  Fourth  Bishop  of  Maryland.     By  W.  F. 

Brand.      2  vols..  New  York,  E.  &  J.  B.  Young  cS:  Co.,  1883. 
Wilmer,  R.  H.  {Bishop  of  Alabama^,   The  Recent  Past,  from  a  Southern 

Standpoint.     2d  ed.,  New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1887. 
Wilson,  Rev,  Bird,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  A  Memorial  of.     By  W.  White  Bron- 

son,  M.A.     Philadelphia,  1864. 


IV.  Prayer-book. 

Butler,  Rev.  C.  M.,  D.D.,  History  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  ivith 
an  Explanation  of  its  Offices.      New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1880. 

Coxe,  Rt.  Rev.  A.  Cleveland,  D.D,,  Thoughts  on  the  Semiccs.  De- 
signed as  an  Introduction  to  the  Liturgy,  and  an  Aid  to  its  devout  Use. 
20th  ed.,  Philadelphia,  Lippincott  &  Co.,  1886. 

Daniel,  Evan,  M.A,,  The  Prayer-book  :  Its  History,  Language,  and  Con- 
tents,     nth  ed.,  London,  Wells,  Gardner,  Darton  &  Co. 

Garrison,  Rev.  Joseph  H.,  D.D.,  The  American  Prayer-book :  Its  Prin- 
ciples, and  the  Laio  of  its  Use.  (Bohlen  Lectures,  1887.)  Philadelphia, 
Porter  &  Coates,  1887. 

Huntington,  W.  R,,  D.D.,  D.CL,,  A  Short  Histo7y  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.      New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1893. 

McGarvey,  William,  B.D.,  Liturgia  Americana;:  The  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  as  Used  in  the  United  States  of  America,  etc.     Philadeljihia,  1895. 

Procter,  Francis,  M.A.,  A  History  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  Amer- 
ican Edition.  With  an  Introductory  Chapter  on  the  History  of  the 
American  Liturgy,  by  William  Stevens  Perry.  New  York,  Pott  & 
Amery,  1868. 

Seabury,  Rt.  Rev.  Samuel,  D.D.,  Communion  Office.  Reprinted  in 
F"acsimile,  with  Historical  Sketch  and  Notes  by  Rev.  Samuel  Hart, 
D.D.     New  York,  1874. 

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Americana;.") 

Stevens,  Rev,  C.  Ellis,  LL,D.,  D.CL.  {Editor),  The  Genesis  of  the 
American  Prayer-book.      New  York,  James  Pott,  1893. 

Temple,  Edward  Lowe,  The  Church  in  the  Prayer-book.  Milwaukee, 
Young  Churchman  Co.,  1893. 

The  Proposed  Book.     Philadelphia,  Hall  &  Sellers,  1786. 


xxiv  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

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,  as  Modified  by  Action  of  the   General  Convention  of  iS8j.     New 

York,  1884. 
,  Report  of  Committee  with. 


V.  Constitution  and  Canons. 

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1855- 
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York,  Pott  &  Amery,  1868. 
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Baptismal  Offices.      New  York,  James  Pott,  1872. 
Periy,  Rt.  Rev.  W.  S.,   The  Genoa  I  Ecclesiastical   Constitution  of  the 

American  Church.     New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1891. 
Revised  Constitution  and  Canons  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 

United  States  of  America,  adopted  by  the  Joint  Committee  appointed  by 

the  General  Convention  of  i8g2.     1895. 
Vinton,  F.,  Manual  Commentary  on  the  General  Cano?i  Law  of  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States.      New  York,  Dutton  &  Co., 

1870. 

VI.  Miscellaneous. 

Huntington,  W.  R.,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  The  Church  Idea:  An  Essay  to- 
ward Unity.     New  York,  Dutton  &  Co.,  1870. 

,  The  Peace  of  the  Church.      (Bohlen  Lectures,  1891.)     2d  ed..  New 

York,  Scribners,  1892. 

Keith,   George,  A.M.,  A  Journal  of  Travels  from  N'e^u  Hampshire  to 
Caratuck  on  the  Continent  of  North  America.     London,  1 706. 

,  See  Collections  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Histo>-ical  Society  for  the 

year  1 8j I.      New  York,  Stanford  &  Swords,  1 851. 
-,  See  Collections  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Ilistorical  Society  for  the 


years  18^2  and  i8jj. 

Leonard,  Rt.  Rev.  William  Andrew,  D.D.  {Bishop  of  Ohio),  The 
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Papers.  Compiled  by  Anne  Ayres.  ist  series.  New  York,  Thomas 
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Potter,  Rt.  Rev.  Alonzo,  D.D.,  The  Memorial,  with  Circular  and  Ques- 
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editor.      Philadelphia,  Butler  &  Co.,  1857. 

Potter,  Rt.  Rev.  H.  C,  D.D.,  Sisterhoods  and  Deaconesses  at  Home  and 
Abroad :  History  of  their  Gro^vth  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Chtirch, 
with  Rules  for  Organization.     New  York,  Dutton  &  Co.,  1881. 


PERIOD    I. 

THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH   IN  THE  COLONIES 
(1607-1785). 


THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH. 


CHAPTER    I. 

EARLIEST    ATTEMPTS    AT    ENGLISH    COLONIZATION. 

To  plant  the  Church  of  England  in  America  formed, 
from  the  beginning,  an  essential  part  of  England's  colonial 
policy.  The  nation  based  its  right  to  colonize  the  West- 
ern continent  on  the  discoveries  in  North  America  of  John 
and  Sebastian  Cabot,  who  sailed  in  1497-98  under  the 
patent  of  Henry  VH.,  and  skirted  the  North  American 
coast  from  Newfoundland  to  the  Chesapeake  Bay.  It  was 
fully  thirty  years  after  these  two  voyages  of  the  Cabots 
before  America  attracted  much  attention  in  England,  and 
not  until  after  the  Reformation  was  established  was  any 
practical  attempt  at  colonization  made.  From  the  very 
first  movement,  however,  it  was  as  much  an  object  of 
England  to  establish  Christianity,  as  she  accepted  and 
embodied  it  in  a  Reformed  Church,  as  to  augment  her 
civil  authority  as  a  great  Protestant  nation. 

It  was  fifty-five  years  after  the  discoveries  of  the  Cabots 
that  "  the  first  reformed  fleet  which  had  English  prayers 
and  preaching  therein  "  was  dispatched  by  direction  of 
Edward  VI.,  under  command  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  to 
discover  a  northeastern  passage  to   Cathay.      It  accom- 

3 


4  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.  [Chap.  i. 

plished  nothing,  as  the  admiral  and  crew  were  all  frozen 
to  death  while  wintering  in  Russian  Lapland.  This  was 
the  only  Western  expedition  of  King  Edward's  reign. 
During  the  reactionary  rule  of  Queen  Mary  all  such  en- 
terprise was  suspended,  and  even  Calais,  the  sole  foreign 
possession  of  the  English  crown,  was  lost.  It  was  during 
the  long  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  friend  of  the  Reformation 
and  determined  enemy  of  Spain,  that  the  first  vigorous 
attempts  were  made  to  plant  civilization  and  the  Church 
of  England  in  America.  Under  her  sway  expeditions  of 
discovery  and  settlement  were  frequent.  We  need  not 
dwell  on  the  expedition  of  Frobisher  along  the  shores  of 
Hudson's  Bay  in  1578,  nor  on  that  of  Drake  to  the  Pacific 
coast  in  1579,  when  he  discovered  the  coast  of  Oregon 
and  made  a  landing  in  California.^  It  is  true  that  in  both 
these  widely  distant  regions  religious  services,  in  the  use 
of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  were  held  by  the  English 
chaplains  of  the  fleets.  These  expeditions  were  not,  how- 
ever, the  historic  roots  of  the  great  aftergrowth  of  English 
civil  and  religious  life  in  the  New  World.  They  were 
transient  in  their  effect,  save  as  they  contributed  to  the 
spirit  of  adventure  which  should  come  after  and  achieve 
permanent  results. 

The  first  charter  granted  for  the  establishment  of  an 
English  colony  on  American  shores  was  that  which  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert  received  from  Queen  Elizabeth,  June 
II,  1578,  which  prescribed  by  letters  patent  "for  the  in- 

1  The  largest  cross  in  the  world  now  stands  in  Drake's  Bay,  North 
America.  Three  hundred  and  sixteen  years  ago  the  celebrated  Sir  Francis 
Drake  landed  in  this  bay,  and  his  chaplain,  Francis  Fletcher  by  name, 
preached  the  very  first  English  sermon  ever  heard  in  that  region.  To  com- 
memorate this  event  Bishop  Nichols,  of  California,  and  the  late  George  W. 
Childs  have  caused  a  large  stone  cross  to  be  erected  on  the  spot,  a  cliff  stand- 
ing three  hundred  feet  above  the  sea.  The  cross  is  fifty-seven  feet  high,  of 
blue  sandstone;  several  of  the  stones  in  it  are  larger  than  the  largest  stone 
in  the  pyramid  of  Cheops.  This  splendid  monument  can  be  seen  far  and 
wide. 


SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT'S  EXPEDITION.  5 

habiting  and  planting  of  our  people  in  America."  It  was 
ordered  that  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  settlement 
"  be,  as  near  as  conveniently  may,  agreeable  to  the  laws 
and  policy  of  England,  and  also  that  they  be  not  against 
the  true  Christian  Faith  and  Religion  now  professed  in 
the  Church  of  England."  This  expedition  proved  fruit- 
less. A  second  voyage  was  undertaken  in  1583,  and  this 
reached  St.  Johns,  which  was  taken  possession  of ;  and  here 
a  few  laws  were  promulgated  for  immediate  observance, 
one  of  which  provided  that  the  religion  of  the  colony  "  in 
publique  exercise  should  be  according  to  the  Church  of 
England."  But  Sir  Humphrey,  notwithstanding  his  colo- 
nial charter,  was  destined  to  make  no  permanent  impres- 
sion in  the  Western  world.  In  attempting  to  explore  the 
coast  of  the  mainland  to  the  southward  he  was  obliged,  by 
the  loss  of  one  of  his  ships,  to  turn  his  face  toward  Eng- 
land ;  and  his  own  ship  foundered  in  a  storm.  "  He  was 
last  seen,"  says  the  afifecting  chronicle  of  the  survivors, 
"sitting  abaft  with  a  book  in  his  hands;"  and  his  last 
words  wafted  to  his  companions  were,  "  We  are  as  near  to 
heaven  by  sea  as  by  land."  So  perished  the  devout  and 
intrepid  leader  of  the  first  chartered  American  colony. 

The  year  following  Sir  Humphrey's  death  (1584)  the 
queen  granted  a  fresh  patent  to  Walter  Raleigh,  half- 
brother  to  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  and  at  that  time  her 
own  favorite  courtier.  By  this  patent  she  vested  in  him 
and  his  heirs  the  powers  and  privileges  which  had  been 
bestowed  on  Sir  Humphrey.  He  at  once  sent  out  two 
barks,  which  reached  the  coast  of  North  Carolina,  and, 
after  spending  two  months  there,  returned  with  two 
natives  whom  they  had  captured,  and  some  general  but 
not  accurate  information  concerning  the  products  of  the 
soil.  The  account  of  this  voyage  made  a  deep  and  wide- 
spread  impression.      The  queen  named   the   country,  of 


6  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.  [Chap.  i. 

which  a  rude  map  was  prhited,  Virginia,  in  honor  of  her- 
self. She  made  Raleigh  a  knight,  and  he  obtained  from 
Parliament  a  bill  confirming  his  patent.  He  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  forward  the  project  of  settling  a  colony  in  the 
newly  discovered  region.  He  gathered  a  squadron  of 
seven  vessels,  put  them  in  command  of  his  cousin,  Sir 
Richard  Grenville,  and  the  expedition  sailed  from  Plym- 
outh April  9,  1585,  for  Virginia,  to  found  a  settlement. 
The  colony  included  a  hundred  and  eight  souls,  over 
whom  Ralph  Lane  was  appointed  governor ;  but  it  was 
not  a  happily  constituted  company.  It  was  not  a  group 
of  families,  but  a  gathering  of  individual  adventurers.  A 
number  of  men  of  fortune  and  family  went  along,  among 
whom  one  is  especially  deserving  of  mention,  viz..  Master 
Hariot,  to  whom  we  owe  the  knowledge  of  the  potato  and 
of  tobacco,  and  who,  first  of  any  member  of  the  Church 
of  England,  made  missionary  efforts  to  convert  the  native 
Indians.  The  majority  were  of  far  less  desirable  quality 
and  character,  "  bad  natures,"  as  Hariot  described  them, 
"  brawling  freebooters,  ignorant  of  husbandry,  and  indis- 
posed to  peaceful  industry,  though  eager  for  adventure 
and  covetous  of  fortune."  The  hopes  of  the  promoters  of 
the  enterprise  found  a  most  inadequate  fulfillment.  Only 
one  year  from  their  arrival  the  sails  of  Sir  Francis  Drake's 
fleet  appeared  on  the  horizon  and  offered  supplies  to  the 
colonists;  but  they  suddenly  determined  to  abandon  the 
settlement,  and  embarked  with  Drake  for  England.  An- 
other expedition  came  the  next  year  (1587),  numbering  a 
hundred  and  fifty,  of  which  John  White  was  the  governor, 
and  which  included,  for  the  first  time,  women  as  well  as  men. 
Misfortune  attended  this  attempt  at  colonization  as  well 
as  that  which  had  preceded  it.  It  had  landed,  not,  as 
proposed,  on  the  shores  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  but  on 
the  island  of  Roanoke,  where  fifteen  of  the  previous  ex- 


S//<^    WALTER  RALEIGH'S  ROANOJCE    COLONY.  7 

pedition  had  been  left,  and  where  now  the  only  traces  of 
them  were  their  bones  and  their  dismantled  and  deserted 
habitations.  The  colonists  were  disheartened  from  the 
outset,  and  soon  became  involved  in  hostilities  with  the 
Indians.  The  governor  was  persuaded  to  return  home  to 
secure  needed  supplies.  He  took  about  half  the  colonists 
with  him,  but,  as  a  fair  evidence  of  his  purpose  to  speedily 
return,  left  behind  his  daughter  and  granddaughter. 

A  most  interesting  episode  in  the  history  of  this  ill-fated 
colony  was  the  baptism  of  Manateo,  the  first  Indian  con- 
vert, on  August  13,  1587,  and,  on  the  following  Sunday 
(August  20th),  of  Virginia  Dare,  born  two  days  previously. 
She  was  the  governor's  granddaughter,  and  the  first  child 
born  of  English  parents  in  America.  Thus  were  admitted 
to  the  Christian  church  the  first  child  and  the  first  convert 
of  a  colony  soon  to  disappear  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  needed  relief  was  of  necessity  delayed  until  it  was  too 
late.  In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1588  the  formidable 
Spanish  Armada  was  gathered  and  partly  afloat.  Every 
maritime  exertion  of  the  mother-country  had  to  be  put 
forth  to  vanquish  this  gigantic  enemy  of  England's  state 
and  church.  Until  this  danger  passed,  to  guard  the  home 
was  a  necessity  more  imperative  than  to  succor  colonists. 
Thus  the  settlement  at  Roanoke  remained  unsuccored 
until  it  had  disappeared.  It  was  not  until  1590  that 
White  could  revisit  the  colony.  All  that  he  found  were 
certain  old  chests  and  water-soaked  charts  and  books  and 
a  few  rusty  cannon.  Of  the  colonists  themselves  there 
was  no  trace.  They  were  either  destroyed  by  the  Indians 
or  amalgamated  with  them.  White  returned  to  England 
in  utter  ignorance  of  their  fate,  and  without  in  the  least 
advancing  the  settlement  of  the  country. 

In  the  meantime  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  having  already 
expended  forty  thousand  pounds  in  his  fruitless  attempts 


8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.  [Chap.  i. 

at  colonization,  became  eager  to  press  his  fortunes  in 
South  America,  which  seemed  to  promise  more  both  in 
adventure  and  in  profit.  Being  embarrassed  by  his  large 
outlay  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  he  in  1588-89,  while 
retaining  his  patent,  made  over  to  Sir  Thomas  Smith  and 
a  company  of  merchants  in  London  all  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges conferred  upon  him  by  letters  patent  of  Elizabeth. 
This  company  took  no  steps  toward  the  permanent  occupa- 
tion of  the  country ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  century  which 
had  elapsed  since  Cabot's  discovery  of  North  America,  no 
settlement  indicative  of  England's  power  and  prowess  was 
to  be  found  on  the  Western  continent.  Sir  Walter,  how- 
ever, had  created  the  spirit  of  colonization  and  secured  the 
possessions  in  North  America  to  the  English  crown. 

Early  in  the  seventeenth  century  renewed  attempts  were 
made  toward  American  colonization,  for  which  now  every- 
thing was  favorable.  The  year  following  the  accession  of 
King  James  I.  was  one  of  peace,  the  first  in  many  years. 
There  was  a  redundancy  of  population.  The  laboring 
class  lived  most  uncomfortably,  in  mere  huts,  at  home,  and 
there  was  lack  of  employment.  The  conflict  with  Spain 
and  the  wars  in  the  Netherlands  had  furnished  relief  by 
giving  occupation  to  the  surplus  population.  It  was  a 
training  which  developed  a  spirit  of  restless  adventure; 
and  when  expeditions  w^ere  set  on  foot  for  the  New 
World,  its  mystery,  and  the  promise  of  betterment,  if 
not  of  wealth,  were  a  resistless  incitement  to  the  spirit  of 
enterprise. 

In  1602  Captain  Bartholomew  Gosnold  sailed  from 
Falmouth,  with  no  reference  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  or  his 
patent,  intending  to  found  a  small  colony.  About  May  he 
came  upon  the  coast  of  Maine.  Thence  he  sailed  south- 
ward, rounded  Cape  Cod,  and  built  a  fortified  house  on 
the  island  of  Cuttyhunk,  intending  to  make  a  permanent 


EXrEDITIONS   OF  PJUNG  AND    WAYMOUTH.  g 

lodgment  there ;  but  the  intended  colonists  fell  to  wran- 
gling, and  amid  general  discontent  the  whole  company 
sailed  for  home.  Sir  Walter  promptly  confiscated .  the 
cargo  of  sassafras  and  cedar,  concerning  the  division  of 
which  the  crew  had  quarreled,  on  the  plea  that  the  ex- 
pedition infringed  his  patent.  A  settlement  was  made 
sufficiently  to  his  advantage  to  induce  him  to  send  out  an 
expedition  again ;  and  Martin  Pring,  with  his  express  per- 
mission, took  charge  of  the  two  vessels — the  "  Speedwell  " 
and  the  "  Discoverer  " — and,  sailing,  sighted  islands  on  the 
coast  of  Maine  June  2,  1603.  He  then  bore  southward 
and  made  harbor  at  what  became  subsequently  Plymouth, 
in  Massachusetts  Bay.  Here  he  remained  six  weeks, 
gathering  sassafras,  and  returned  home  again  in  October. 
He  thus  became  acquainted  with  the  land  of  the  Pilgrims 
seventeen  years  before  the  Pilgrims  came ;  and  here  the 
service  of  the  Church  of  England  was  celebrated  in  advance 
of  the  Puritans,  who  on  these  shores  afterward  rejected  it. 
In  1605  an  expedition,  commanded  by  George  Way- 
mouth,  sailed  from  Dartmouth,  which  was  destined  to 
have  an  important  bearing  on  the  future  of  New  England 
colonization.  He  arrived  off  the  coast  of  Maine  in  June, 
and  explored  the  Kennebec  River  for  forty  miles.  He 
planted  a  cross  as  a  mark  of  discovery  and  possession,  and 
set  sail  for  England  June  i6th,  carrying  with  him  five 
savages  whom  he  had  kidnapped.  The  narrative  of  this 
voyage  which  was  soon  published,  describing  the  coast 
of  Maine  as  it  appeared  in  summer-time,  together  with  the 
curiosity  aroused  by  the  presence  of  the  Indians,  awakened 
a  widespread  interest.  It  attracted  the  attention  of  Sir 
John  Popham,  Lord  Chief-Justice.  Sir  Fernando  Gorges, 
as  royal  governor  at  Plymouth,  took  the  Indians  in  chaVge, 
kept  three  of  them  in  his  house  for  three  years,  having 
them  instructed  in  English,  and  learning  from  them  con- 


lO  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  i. 

cerning  the  islands  and  harbors  of  their  native  country. 
He  thus  became  an  enthusiast  concerning  settlements  in 
the  New  World,  and  a  new  impulse  was  given  to  Western 
adventure. 

In  the  spirit  of  enthusiasm  thus  aroused,  both  Lord 
Chief-Justice  Popham  and  Sir  Fernando  Gorges  made 
efforts,  by  sending  several  ships  to  the  river  Sagadahoc  or 
Kennebec,  to  accomplish  a  settlement  there.  These  were 
captured  by  the  Spaniards;  but  Pring,  commanding  an- 
other ship  of  Popham's,  reached  the  shore  in  safety,  and 
made  a  careful  survey  of  it,  in  consequence  of  which  plans 
for  a  permanent  colony  were  projected.  This  last  expedi- 
tion, which  started  in  May,  1607,  did  not  accomplish  any 
permanent  settlement.  It  discovered  the  cross  which 
Waymouth  had  set  up  two  years  before ;  and  there  the 
company  landed,  and  the  preacher  of  the  colony.  Sir 
Richard  Seymour,  held  a  solemn  service,  preached  a  ser- 
mon, and  offered  prayers.  This  is  the  first  record  of  a 
religious  service  performed  by  any  English  or  Protestant 
clergyman  within  the  bounds  of  New  England,  which  was 
then  and  there  consecrated  to  Christian  civilization.  By 
reason  of  the  death  of  Lord  Chief-Justice  Popham,  the 
patentee,  and  of  Captain  George  Popham  (his  brother),  the 
leader  of  the  enterprise,  as  well  as  of  a  fire  which  destroyed 
the  houses  which  they  built,  and  by  the  unexpected  in- 
clemency of  the  winter  climate,  the  colonists  became  dis- 
couraged, and  all  set  sail  for  England  in  the  ship  which 
came  bringing  them  supplies.  The  short-lived  colony  is, 
however,  worthy  of  note,  because  the  claim  of  the  English 
to  the  possession  of  the  territory  of  New  England  rests  upon 
this  settlement.  It  is  interesting,  moreover,  as  a  witness  to 
the  performance  of  the  service  of  the  Church  of  England 
as  the  first  religious  worship  in  the  region  afterward  to 
become  the  land  of  the  Pilgrims. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    VIRGINIA    CHARTER    AND    SETTLEMENT. 

The  time  for  mere  individual  adventure  and  private  ex- 
peditions was  now  over.  Experience  had  proved  them  too 
large  and  costly  for  single  persons  to  undertake.  On  April 
lO,  1606,  King  James  I.  granted  the  first  charter  of  Vir- 
ginia, on  the  general  plan  of  the  East  India  Company, 
which  had  been  organized  for  purposes  of  trade  in  1599. 
This  charter  provided  for  the  establishment  of  a  company, 
or  of  one  company  in  two  branches,  namely,  the  London 
Colony  and  the  Plymouth  Colony,  the  former  having  au- 
thority to  occupy  lands  between  34°  and  41°  of  north 
latitude,  and  the  latter  to  occupy  lands  between  38°  and 
45°  of  north  latitude.  As  is  evident,  these  colonies  over- 
lapped each-  other  in  the  region  lying  between  38°  and 
41°  north  latitude,  common  to  them  both.  Neither  colony 
was  permitted  to  plant  a  settlement  within  a  hundred  miles 
of  a  settlement  previously  planted  by  the  other.  Each 
company  was  to  have  a  hundred  miles  of  seacoast,  half 
to  the  north  and  half  to  the  south  of  its  colony,  with  the 
islands  for  a  hundred  miles  eastward  on  the  coast,  and 
territory  on  the  mainland  to  the  same  extent  westward. 
The  West  was  at  that  time  a  wholly  unknown  region  as 
to  its  extent.  In  the  original  charter.  Sir  Thomas  Gates, 
Richard  Hakluyt,  Edmund  Wingfield,  and  George  Pop- 
ham  (brother  of  Sir  John  Popham,  the  Chief-Justice),  with 
others,  were  the  corporators ;  but  in  the  Superior  Council 

II 


12  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  n. 

appointed  by  the  king  six  months  later,  Sir  John  Popham 
and  Fernando  Gorges  were  included.  In  the  set  of  in- 
structions issued  by  the  authority  of  the  king  as  a  kind 
of  constitution  of  the  company  it  was  stipulated  that  the 
Church  of  England  was  to  be  maintained,  and  it  was  en- 
joined to  use  all  proper  means  to  draw  the  natives  to  the 
true  knowledge  and  love  of  God. 

Before  the  expedition  left  England  for  Virginia  an  ordi- 
nance was  passed,  under  the  sign-manual  of  the  king  and 
the  privy  seal,  which  contained  the  following  declaration: 
"  That  the  said  Presidents,  Councils,  and  the  Ministers 
should  provide  that  the  Word  and  service  of  God  be 
preached,  planted,  and  used,  not  only  in  the  said  Colonies, 
but  also,  as  much  as  might  be,  among  the  savages  border- 
ing among  them,  according  to  the  rites  and  doctrines  of 
the  Church  of  England." 

The  expedition  thus  commissioned  in  regard  to  spiritual 
and  ecclesiastical  matters  sailed  from  Blackwall  December 
19,  1606,  and  reached  Virginia  April  26,  1607,  being  four 
months  on  the  way.  It  took  with  it,  however,  not  merely 
instructions  on  paper  concerning  its  religious  obligations, 
but  a  most  admirable  and  godly  man  as  chaplain  to  carry 
them  out.  This  first  colonial  clergyman  was  Rev.  Robert 
Hunt,  one  of  the  petitioners  for  the  charter,  and  designated 
by  Archbishop  Bancroft  at  the  solicitation  of  Wingfield, 
who  was  the  first  elected  president  of  the  colonists,  and 
the  celebrated  Richard  Hakluyt,  prebendary  of  Westmin- 
ster, one  of  the  original  corporators.  Of  him  Captain  John 
Smith,  the  first  historian  of  Virginia,  speaks  later  as  "  an 
honest,  religious,  and  courageous  Divine,  during  whose 
life  our  factions  were  oft  qualified,  our  wants  and  greatest 
extremities  so  comforted,  that  they  seemed  easy  in  com- 
parison of  what  we  endured  after  his  memorable  death." 
He  showed  his  steadfastness  and  devotion  at  the  very  be- 


CHAPLAIN  ROBERT  HUNT.  I  3 

ginning  of  the  voyage,  when,  as  it  is  related  in  Smith's 
"  Virginia,"  they  "  by  unprosperous  winds  were  kept  six 
weeks  in  sight  of  England,  all  which  time  Mr.  Hunt  our 
preacher  was  so  weake  and  sicke,  that  few  expected  his 
recovery.  Yet  although  we  were  but  twenty  miles  from 
his  habitation  (the  time  we  were  in  the  Downes)  and  not- 
withstanding the  stormy  weather,  nor  the  scandalous  im- 
putations (of  some  few,  little  better  than  atheists,  of  the 
greatest  rank  among  us)  suggested  against  him,  all  this 
could  never  force  from  him  so  much  as  a  seeming  desire 
to  leaue  the  busines,  but  preferred  the  service  of  God,  in 
so  good  a  voyage  before  any  affection  to  contest  with  his 
godlesse  foes,  whose  disasterous  designs  (could  they  haue 
prevailed)  had  even  then  overthrowne  the  businesse,  so 
many  discontents  did  then  arise,  had  he  not  with  water  of 
patience  and  his  godly  exhortations  (but  chiefly  by  his  true 
devoted  example)  quenched  those  flames  of  envie  and  dis- 
sension." On  the  13th  of  May  the  colony  landed,  and 
began  the  settlement  of  Jamestown,  on  the  north  bank  of 
the  James  River,  about  thirty-two  miles  from  its  mouth. 
There  was  erected  the  first  church  in  Virginia. 

"  I  well  remember,"  writes  Smith  in  his  "  Advertise- 
ments for  the  Unexperienced  Planters  of  New  England," 
"  wee  did  hang  an  awning  (which  is  an  old  saile)  to  three 
or  four  trees  to  shaden  us  from  the  sunne,  our  walles  were 
rales  of  wood,  our  seats  unhewed  trees,  till  we  cut  plankes  : 
our  pulpit  a  bar  of  wood  nailed  to  two  neighbouring  trees. 
This  was  our  Churche  till  wee  built  a  homely  thing  like  a 
barne,  set  upon  crotchets  covered  with  rafts,  sedge  and 
earth ;  so  was  also  the  walles,  that  could  neither  well  de- 
fend wind  nor  raine.  Yet  we  had  daily  Common  Prayer 
morning  and  evening,  every  Sunday  two  sermons,  and 
every  three  months  the  Holy  Communion,  till  our  minister 
died.     But  our  prayers  daily,  with  an  homily  on  Sundaies, 


14  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

we  continued  two  or  three  yeares  after  till  more  Preachers 
came." 

The  chaplain  was  alive  to  the  duties  of  his  calling  from 
the  first  moment.  On  June  2ist,  five  weeks  after  the 
landing,  the  first  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  took  place 
in  the  English  colonies  of  America.  That  was  the  day 
preceding  Captain  Newport's  return  to  England  for  sup- 
plies, and  the  day  following  Captain  Smith's  admission, 
after  much  turbulent  bickering,  to  membership  in  the 
council.  Beneath  a  rude  sail  upheld  by  the  logs  fresh 
cut  from  the  forest,  the  first  communion  was  celebrated 
in  Virginia  as  the  sacrament  of  peace.  It  was  the  third 
Sunday  after  Trinity,  1607,  and  the  exhortation  of  the 
Epistle  for  that  day,  "  All  of  you  be  subject  one  to  another, 
and  be  clothed  with  humility,"  was  certainly  apt  to  the 
occasion. 

The  history  of  the  Virginia  Colony,  apart  from  its  bear- 
ing on  the  development  of  the  church,  lies,  of  course,  be- 
yond the  province  of  this  volume ;  but  Chaplain  Hunt 
seems  to  have  been  always  the  mainstay  of  the  colony. 
Captain  Smith,  who  soon  came  to  the  front,  made  him  his 
chief  reliance  in  pacifying  quarrels  and  maintaining  the 
spirit  of  the  colonists.  It  is  recorded  that  no  one  ever 
heard  him  murmur  or  repine.  He  did  not  survive  many 
years ;  but  he  lived  long  enough  to  leave  behind  him  a 
memory  redolent  of  devotion  and  sagacity,  and  an  influ- 
ence which  secured  for  some  time  a  succession  of  ministers 
of  a  like  character  to  his  own. 

When,  after  repeated  disappointments,  the  colony  had 
begun  to  excite  ridicule  in  England,  a  new  zeal  in  its  be- 
half was  stirred  up  by  those  more  especially  interested  in 
it.  A  new  charter,  greatly  enlarged,  was  issued  in  May, 
1609;  and  the  names  of  many  distinguished  personages 
appear  for  the  first  time  associated  with  it.     Robert  Cecil, 


RELIGIOUS  INTEREST  IN  ENGLAND.  15 

Earl  of  Salisbury,  and  Francis  Bacon  were  among  them ; 
as  also  Abbot,  then  Bishop  of  London,  and  afterward 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ;  the  Bishops  of  Lincoln  and 
Worcester,  and  Bath  and  Wells ;  Sandys,  the  pupil  of 
Hooker ;  and  John  and  Nicholas  Ferrar ;  and  again  Hak- 
luy t,  whose  interest  never  flagged.  Sermons  were  preached 
in  the  London  churches,  for  the  first  time,  to  those  about  to 
carry  forth  the  name  and  character  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land to  the  New  World.  A  notable  one  was  that  delivered 
February  21,  1609,  by  William  Crashaw,  preacher  at  the 
Temple,  in  the  presence  of  Lord  de  la  Warr  and  the  Vir- 
ginia council,  a  few  months  before  the  departure  of  the 
expedition.  At  its  conclusion  he  thus  addressed  the  first 
governor  of  Virginia:  "  Thy  ancestor  many  hundred  years 
agoe  gained  great  honour  to  thy  house  ;  but  by  this  action 
thou  augmentest  it :  he  tooke  a  King  prisoner  in  the  field 
in  his  own  land ;  but  by  the  godly  managing  of  this  busi- 
nesses thou  shalt  take  the  Diuell  prisoner  ?n  open  field  and 
in  his  owne  kingdome.  .  .  .  And  thus  the  glory  and 
honour  of  thy  house  is  more  at  the  last  than  at  the  first. 
Look  not  at  the  gaine,  the  wealth,  the  honour,  but  looke 
at  those  high  and  better  ends  that  concerne  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  Remember  thou  art  a  General  of  Christian  men, 
therefore  looke  principally  to  religion.  You  goe  to  com- 
mend it  to  the  heathen:  then  practice  it  yourselves;  make 
the  name  of  Christ  honourable  not  hatefull  unto  them." 

It  is  thus  evident  that  the  spirit  of  Christian  love 
animated  the  hearts  of  some  who  were  engaged  in  this 
colonial  enterprise.  Many  insubordinate  and  disreputable 
characters  were  enlisted  in  this  new  company  of  five  hun- 
dred who  went  out  to  reinforce  the  Virginia  Colony ;  but 
the  spirit  of  the  company  and  of  the  leaders  was  sober  and 
religious.  Lord  de  la  Warr,  under  the  new  charter,  was 
the  first  governor  of  Virginia ;  and  by  reason  of  the  change 


1 6  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ii. 

in  the  government,  from  an  aristocracy  to  an  autocracy  of 
one,  more  specific  directions  were  hereafter  sent  by  the 
company  concerning  religion  and  legislation  in  its  behalf. 
Master  Burke,  commended  by  the  Bishop  of  London 
as  a  faithful  and  zealous  minister,  "  an  able  and  painfull 
preacher,"  and  a  graduate  of  Oxford,  was  appointed  chap- 
lain. He  started  with  the  expedition  under  Sir  Thomas 
Gates  and  Sir  George  Somers,  which  preceded  Lord  de  la 
Warr;  was  wrecked  with  them  off  the  Bermudas,  where 
he  ministered  faithfully  until  two  ships  were  built,  which 
carried  them  to  Jamestown  in  June,  i6io.  The  most  of 
the  expedition,  consisting  of  seven  vessels,  had  previously 
reached  that  place  in  August,  1609,  and  was  composed, 
for  the  most  part,  of  "  poore  gentlemen,  tradesmen,  serving 
men,  libertines,  and  such  like,  ten  times  more  fit  to  spoil  a 
commonwealth,  than  either  begin  one,  or  help  to  maintain 
one."  In  the  absence  of  commanding  leaders,  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  dissensions  concerning  Captain  Smith,  fliese 
had  added  greatly  to  the  misery  and  confusion  of  the 
colony.  Before  the  ships  from  Bermuda  arrived.  Captain 
Smith  had  departed  for  England,  having  been  rendered 
helpless  by  a  distressing  wound  from  the  explosion  of  a 
powder-flask,  and  knowing  that  his  commission  was  to  be 
superseded.  When  he  left,  the  colony  was  in  good  con- 
dition. There  were  nearly  five  hundred  men,  possessing 
three  ships  and  seven  boats.  The  harvest  was  gathered ; 
there  were  ten  weeks'  provisions  in  store  and  a  sufficient 
supply  of  arms,  tools,  clothing,  and  cattle.  By  the  time 
Burke  arrived  with  Gates  and  Somers,  sickness,  hunger, 
and  the  ravages  of  the  Indians  had  reduced  the  number 
to  about  sixty.  These  survivors  were  living  on  roots  and 
horse-flesh,  and  this  period  was  known  afterward  as  "  the 
starving-time."  At  once,  on  arriving,  Gates  summoned 
the  survivors  to  the  dilapidated  church  ;  and  Master  Burke 


LORD   DE   LA    WARR'S  ADMLNISLRATION.  ly 

led  their  devotions  in  a  "  zealous  and  sorrowful  "  prayer. 
The  destitution  was  so  great  that  Gates  resolved  to  aban- 
don the  settlement  and  proceed  to  Newfoundland.  On  the 
evening  of  June  7th  the  vessels,  with  all  on  board,  dropped 
down  the  river  with  the  tide,  "  none  dropping  a  tear, 
because  none  had  enjoyed  one  day  of  happiness."  The 
Virginia  Colony  seemed  to  be  at  an  end. 

But  the  ships  of  De  la  Warr  were  in  the  offing.  Gates, 
the  next  morning,  while  waiting  for  the  tide,  descried  a 
boat  approaching,  which  announced  the  arrival  of  the  ex- 
pedition. The  forlorn  remnant  of  a  colony  returned  to  the 
deserted  settlement;  and  there,  a  few  days  later,  on  Sun- 
day the  loth  of  June,  Lord  de  la  Warr  was  received  by  the 
lieutenant-governor  and  his  destitute  companions,  drawn 
up  under  arms.  He  was  so  affected  by  the  melancholy 
sight  that  he  fell  upon  his  knees  and  prayed  silently  in  the  ^ 
presence  of  all  the  people.  When  he  arose  a  procession 
was  formed,  which  marched  at  once  to  the  church,  where 
a  sermon  was  preached  by  Master  Burke ;  and  not  until 
the  conclusion  of  divine  service  did  he  assume  command 
of  the  colony.  Among  the  earliest  acts  of  his  government 
were  provisions  for  spreading  and  preserving  the  gospel 
among  the  colonists.  The  church  was  at  once  handsomely 
repaired,  and  daily  morning  and  evening  prayer  were  per- 
formed within  it.  On  Sundays  De  la  Warr  attended  in 
state,  accompanied  by  all  the  public  officers,  and  a  guard 
in  "  faire  red  cloakes,"  to  the  number  of  fifty,  on  each  side 
and  behind  him.  He  was  seated  in  the  "  Ouier,"  "  in  a 
green  velvet  chair,  with  a  velvet  cushion  on  a  table  before 
him."  He  returned  home  from  church  attended  in  the 
same  stately  manner.  He  thus  gave  the  weight  of  his 
official  position,  after  the  fashion  of  those  days,  to  the  re- 
ligious concerns  of  the  colony,  and  publicly  and  privately 
set  an  example  of  devotion.      More  than  one  clergyman 


1 8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chai'.  ii. 

accompanied  him,  so  that  Master  Burke  was  no  longer 
alone.  Lord  de  la  Warr's  administration  was,  however, 
short-lived.  His  health  compelled  him  to  return  home 
after  a  year's  sojourn  in  Virginia.  He  had,  almost  imme- 
diately after  his  arrival,  petitioned  for  more  clerical  aid ; 
and  in  "  The  Table  of  such  as  are  required  in  their  Plan- 
tation," issued  by  the  council  of  the  company  at  home, 
"  foure  honest  and  learned  ministers"  head  the  list. 

Alexander  Whitaker,  son  of  the  master  of  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  was  the  most  eminent  of  those  who 
followed  in  the  company  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  the  successor 
of  Lord  de  la  Warr.  He  was  a  man  of  great  energy  and 
earnestness.  The  fact  that  Pocahontas  was  converted  and 
baptized  by  him  has  made  his  name  conspicuous ;  but  his 
labors,  both  for  the  colonists  and  the  natives,  gave  him 
a  right  to  the  title  "  Apostle  to  the  Indians,"  by  which 
he  became  designated.  He  left  station,  wealth,  the  sure 
prospect  of  preferment,  and  many  cultivated  friends,  of  his 
own  free  motion,  "  to  help  beare  the  name  of  God  unto 
the  Gentiles."  The  presence  of  such  a  man  was  a  conse- 
cration to  the  colony.  Glover  also,  a  Cambridge  graduate 
somewhat  advanced  in  years,  and  in  easy  circumstances, 
but  animated  by  the  same  missionary  and  martyr  spirit 
as  Whitaker,  came  over  in  June,  1611,  with  Sir  Thomas 
Gates,  on  whom  the  government  now  devolved,  and  who 
embarked  with  his  wife  and  daughter  and  three  hundred 
men,  and  a  large  supply  of  stores  and  cattle.  The  temporal 
circumstances  of  the  colony  began  to  mend.  New  settle- 
ments were  formed  at  Henrico,  named  in  honor  of  Henry, 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  at  Bermuda  Hundred.  The  char- 
acter of  the  colonists,  however,  seemed  to  the  company 
at  home  to  call  for  more  stringent  laws.  One  can  with 
difficulty  picture  to  himself  the  characteristics  of  a  colony 
so  mixed  as  that  at  Jamestown.     Its  domesticity  may  be 


LAIFS   OF  SIR    THOMAS  DALE.  1 9 

imagined  when  women  were  sent  over  in  shiploads  for 
wives  to  the  settlers,  and  when  freebooters,  eager  for  ad- 
venture and  gold,  pressed  continually  in.  There  was 
doubtless  occasion  for  rigorous  rule,  but  not  excuse  for 
the  savage  provision  of  the  "  Lawes,  diuine,  morall  and 
martiall,"  which  were  promulgated  by  the  home  company 
for  the  use  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale.  These  laws  were  in 
great  measure  copied  from  the  laws  observed  in  the  Low 
Countries  during  the  wars  there,  in  which  Dale  had  served 
with  distinction.  They  put  the  church  under  martial  law, 
and  tended  to  make  it  odious.  They  were  administered 
with  great  moderation,  in  fact,  were  allowed  to  slumber, 
by  Dale ;  but  they  empowered  him  to  put  to  death  all 
who  spoke  against  the  holy  Trinity  or  the  articles  of 
the  Christian  faith,  or  who  uttered  blasphemy  or  unlawful 
oaths.  To  be  openly  whipped  three  times  was  the  penalty 
for  behaving  irreverently  to  any  preacher  or  minister  of 
God's  Word ;  and  absence  from  divine  service  upon  week- 
days or  "  the  Saboth,"  if  persisted  in  after  fine  and  whip- 
ping, brought  condemnation  for  six  months  to  the  galleys, 
or  even  death.  These  and  other  like  laws,  to  the  number 
of  thirty-seven,  were  to  be  read  every  "  Saboth  "  publicly 
in  the  congregation  by  the  minister,  "  upon  paine  of  his 
entertainment  checkt  for  that  weeke." 

To  a  community  of  a  character  to  suggest  the  propriety 
of  such  laws  the  ministrations  of  religion  must  have  been 
both  arduous  and  depressing.  That  they  were  faithfully 
executed,  even  enthusiastically  fulfilled,  by  the  devoted 
men  who  had  undertaken  the  work  is  conspicuously  evi- 
dent. The  whole  tone  and  scope  of  Whitaker's  "  Good 
Newes  from  Virginia,"  published  in  London  in  161 3,  dem- 
onstrate this.  He  makes  this  appeal  to  his  countrymen : 
"  Awake,  you  true-hearted  Englishmen,  you  servants  of 
Jesus  Christ,  remember  that  the  Plantation  is  God's,  and 


20  PKOrESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

the  reward  your  country's."  Many  circumstances  now 
occurred  to  strengthen  the  colony.  The  conversion  and 
baptism  of  Pocahontas,  daughter  of  the  Indian  chief 
Powhatan,  and  her  marriage  to  John  Rolfe,  an  English 
gentleman,  with  her  subsequent  visit  in  1616  to  England, 
where  she  died,  did  much  to  deepen  and  extend  the  in- 
terest of  sober-minded  persons  in  England  in  the  colony. 
It  had  a  favorable  effect  for  a  while  upon  the  relations  of 
the  colony  with  the  Indians,  resulting  in  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  Powhatan  in  16 14. 

The  systematic  cultivation  of  tobacco,  which  began  about 
16 1 2,  is  attributed  to  John  Rolfe;  and  it  was  so  lucrative 
as  to  soon  become  the  all-controlling  occupation  of  Vir- 
ginia. It  became  an  element  in  all  its  political  and  relig- 
ious disturbances,  besides  greatly  increasing  its  commercial 
relations,  and  it  was  the  most  direct  instigation  of  African 
slavery.  The  third  charter,  granted  in  161 2,  introduced  a 
wiser  policy  respecting  the  possession  of  land.  ■  Up  to  this 
time  no  land  had  been  held  in  America  as  a  private  pos- 
session ;  but  now  a  certain  quantity  was  allowed  to  each 
freeman,  a  portion  of  its  fruit  being  received  as  rent.  This 
proved  a  great  stimulus  to  agricultural  industry.  When 
Argall,  who  succeeded  Gates  in  161 7,  came  out  as  deputy 
governor,  he  found  the  streets  of  Jamestown  planted  with 
tobacco.  Argall  did  much  by  his  tyranny  to  retard  the 
colony ;  he  reinstated  the  martial  code,  which  Gates  had 
dispensed  with ;  but  after  two  years  he  was  driven  out, 
and  at  the  coming  of  Sir  George  Yeardley  (1619)  a  new 
era  began.  Under  him  the  laws  of  England  took  the 
place  of  Dale's  iron  code ;  and  the  first  representative 
body  of  legislators  that  ever  existed  in  America  was 
now  constituted,  a  year  before  the  arrival  of  the  Pil- 
grims at  Plymouth.  The  House  of  Burgesses  met  in  the 
chancel  of  the  church  at  Jamestown,  July  30,  1619,  and 


HOUSE   OF  BURGESSES,  1619.  21 

was  duly  opened  with  prayer  by  Master  Burke.  It  exer- 
cised judicial  as  well  as  legislative  authority.  It  confirmed 
the  authority  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  colony,  and 
made  laws  concerning  religious  observances,  such  as  at- 
tendance at  church  twice  on  Sunday,  which  was  compul- 
sory. It  was  provided  that  the  clergy  should  have  in  each 
borough  a  glebe  of  one  hundred  acres,  and  receive  from  the 
profits  of  each  parish  a  standing  revenue  of  two  hundred 
pounds.  The  dues  of  the  minister  were  paid  mostly  in 
tobacco;  and  in  1621—22  it  was  enacted  that  each  clergy- 
man should  have  fifteen  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco  and 
sixteen  barrels  of  corn.  If  this  could  not  be  raised,  "  the 
minister  was  to  be  content  with  less."  At  the  time  of  this 
first  establishment  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Virginia  by 
the  action  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  there  were  only  five 
clergymen  in  the  colony,  and  two  of  these  were  in  dea- 
con's orders.  The  state  undertook  the  matter  of  ecclesi- 
astical discipline,  and  passed  numerous  laws  regulating  the 
conduct  and  duties  of  both  clergy  and  laity.  Negligent 
clergy  were  answerable  to  the  governor  and  Council  of 
Estate  ;  and  before  proceeding  to  excommunicate  any  lay- 
man, the  clergy  were  to  present  their  opinions  to  the 
governor.  Special  directions  were  given  for  preaching, 
catechising,  and  administration  of  the  sacraments ;  and 
special  punishments  were  decreed  for  idleness,  gaming, 
and  swearing.  The  passion  for  display  in  even  so  primi- 
tive a  community  is  evidenced  by  the  provision  that  the 
rate  for  public  contributions  was  to  be  assessed  in  the 
church  on  the  apparel  of  the  men  and  women,  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  restraining  immoderate  excess  in  dress. 

The  interests  of  education  were  not  neglected.  Meas- 
ures were  passed  looking  to  the  foundation  of  a  college, 
and  specific  directions  were  given  that  from  the  children 
of  the  natives  "  the  most  towardly  boyes  in  witt  and  graces 


22  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ii. 

of  nature  be  fitted  for  the  college  intended  for  them,"  that 
they  might  be  missionaries  to  their  own  people.  The 
college  was  intended  for  the  English  as  well  as  the  Indians. 
In  response  to  an  address  to  the  archbishops,  fifteen  hun- 
dred pounds  was  received  for  the  college ;  and  the  com- 
pany instructed  Yeardley  to  plant  a  university  at  Henrico, 
and  allotted  ten  thousand  acres  of  land  for  its  endowment. 
Further  sums  were  also  received ;  one,  a  bequest  of  Mr. 
Nicholas  Ferrar,  Sr.,  a  merchant  of  London,  of  three  hun- 
dred pounds,  "  to  be  paid  when  there  shall  be  three  of  the 
Infidels'  children  placed  in  it;"  also  twenty-four  pounds, 
"  to  be  distributed  to  three  discreet  and  godly  men  in  the 
colony  which  shall  honestly  bring  up  three  of  the  Infidels' 
children  in  the  Christian  Religion  and  some  good  course 
to  live  by."  Bishop  King,  of  London,  collected  and  paid 
a  thousand  pounds  to  the  Henrico  college.  The  sum  of 
five  hundred  pounds  was  forwarded  to  the  treasurer.  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys  (son  of  the  Archbishop  of  York  and  pupil 
of  Richard  Hooker),  for  the  education  of  Indian  children 
from  seven  years  of  age  until  twelve,  after  which  they  were 
to  be  taught  some  trade  until  they  were  twenty-one,  when 
they  were  to  be  admitted  to  equal  privileges  with  the 
native  English  of  Virginia.  Numerous  gifts  of  commun- 
ion plate  and  linen,  of  Bibles  and  Prayer-books,  were  sent 
out  for  the  use  of  the  college  and  church ;  and  Thomas 
Bargrave,  a  clergyman,  gave  his  library  to  it.  Rev.  Mr. 
Copeland,  chaplain  of  an  East-Indiaman,  a  little  later  col- 
lected a  sum  for  the  establishment  of  a  public  free  pre- 
paratory school,  for  which  the  company  allotted  a  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  for  the  support  of  a  master  and  usher. 
Mr.  George  Thorp,  "  an  exemplary  man,  of  good  parts 
and  well  bred,"  accepted  the  headship  of  the  college 
from  a  desire  to  help  on  the  conversion  of  the  Indians. 
The  extension  of  the  colony  up  the  James  River  for  a 


THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON'S  JURISDICTION.  23 

hundred  and  forty  miles,  and  the  division  of  this  territory 
into  eleven  boroughs,  scattered  the  population,  so  that  the 
five  clergymen,  who  might  have  been  sufficient  for  the 
colony  had  it  remained  concentrated  in  Jamestown  and  its 
immediate  vicinity,  were  unable  to  reach  with  their  spir- 
itual ministrations  so  scattered  a  flock.  The  Virginia 
council,  therefore,  applied  to  the  Bishop  of  London  to 
assist  them  in  providing  "  pious,  learned,  and  painful  min- 
isters." The  bishop  was  forthwith  chosen  a  member  of  the 
king's  council  for  Virginia;  and,  as  the  result  of  Bishop 
King's  personal  and  official  interest  and  love,  the  spiritual 
jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  London  was  henceforth  con- 
tinuously recognized  in  America  during  the  whole  period 
of  its  colonial  history,  though  no  special  measures  were  at 
this  time,  or  ever,  adopted  to  formally  incorporate  Virginia, 
or  any  American  colony,  within  the  diocese  of  London. 

The  population  of  the  colony  was  now  reinforced  by  the 
importation  of  women  for  wives,  and  also  of  boys  and  girls 
for  apprentices  and  servants.  Ninety  young  women  of 
good  repute  were  shipped  to  Virginia  at  the  expense  of 
the  company,  and  these  were  followed  later  by  a  band 
of  sixty.  Convicts,  also,  to  the  number  of  a  hundred, 
were  sent  as  laborers  by  the  arbitrary  mandate  of  the 
king.  This  tyrannical  act  of  James,  as  Smith,  the  his- 
torian of  the  colony,  wrote,  "  hath  laid  one  of  the  finest 
countries  of  America  under  just  scandal  of  being  a  mere 
hell  upon  earth,  another  Siberia,  and  only  fit  for  the  recep- 
tion of  malefactors  and  the  vilest  of  the  people."  In  this 
same  year  (1620)  negro  slavery  was  introduced  into  the 
colony,  not  by  the  company,  but  by  the  private  cupidity  of 
some  of  the  settlers  in  Jamestown,  who  purchased  twenty 
negroes  from  a  Dutch  ship  which  had  put  in  there  for  the 
purposes  of  trade. 

Such  was  the  composition  of  the  community  which  the 


24  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

church  was  set  to  leaven  with  Christian  truth  and  practice. 
It  is  not  strange  that  out  of  such  moral  and  social  chaos 
order  and  propriety  could  not  be  speedily  evolved. 

In  1 62 1  Sir  Francis  Wyatt  succeeded  Yeardley  as  gov- 
ernor, and  he  came  out  bringing  a  written  constitution  of 
government.  In  certain  articles  of  instruction  which  he 
bore  the  first  recommendation  was  :  "  To  take  into  especial 
regard  the  service  of  Almighty  God  and  the  observance  of 
his  Divine  laws  and  that  the  people  should  be  trained  in 
true  religion  and  virtue.  And  since  their  endeavours  for 
the  Establishment  of  the  honour  and  rights  of  the  church 
and  ministry  had  not  yet  taken  due  effect,  they  were  re- 
quired to  employ  their  utmost  care  to  advance  all  things 
appertaining  to  the  Order  and  Administration  of  Divine 
Service  according  to  the  form  and  discipline  of  the  Church 
of  England.  .  .  .  They  were  to  use  all  probable  means  of 
bringing  over  the  natives  to  a  love  of  civility  and  to  the 
knowledge  of  God  and  his  true  religion;  to  draw  the  best 
disposed  among  the  Indians  to  commune  and  labour  with 
our  people,  for  a  convenient  reward,  that  thereby  being 
reconciled  to  a  civil  way  of  life,  and  brought  to  a  sense  of 
God  and  religion,  they  might  afterwards  become  instru- 
ments in  the  general  conversion  of  their  countrymen." 

The  written  constitution  brought  over  by  Wyatt  was  a 
spur  to  the  progress  of  the  colony.  It  provided  that, 
while  the  governor  and  council  were  to  be  appointed  by 
the  company,  the  acts  of  the  Assembly  and  the  orders  of 
the  company  must  each  receive  the  sanction  of  the  other. 
It  confirm.ed  the  right  of  trial  by  jury ;  and,  in  fine,  the 
form  of  government  hereafter  to  be  established  generally 
in  the  American  colonies  was  enacted  by  it.  Fifty  patents 
for  new  settlements  were  issued  in  1621  ;  and  in  that  and 
the  two  years  preceding  more  than  thirty-five  hundred 
emigrants  had  arrived  in  Virginia.      A  few  Puritans  were 


rREATMEKT  OF  PURITANS  IN    VIRGINIA.  25 

among'  them,  who  received  kind  treatment;  for,  while  the 
letter  of  the  colonial  law  in  ecclesiastical  matters  was  the 
echo  of  the  despotic  courts  in  England,  the  church  being 
assuredly  established  in  the  colonies  as  at  home,  the  spirit 
of  the  administration  was  mild  and  equitable.  This  treat- 
ment of  Puritans  by  churchmen  has  been  contrasted  with 
the  treatment  of  churchmen  by  Puritans  in  New  England. 
Jefferson,  indeed,  affirms  that,  with  the  exception  of  capital 
executions,  the  same  intolerant  spirit  prevailed  in  Virginia 
as  in  Boston  and  Salem.  But  what  may  have  been  true 
fifty  years  later,  under  exceptional  circumstances,  is  re- 
jected by  the  calmer  spirit  of  Bancroft  as  true  of  this 
period.^  And,  pleasant  as  is  the  recognition  of  the  spirit 
of  tolerance  in  Virginia  at  this  time,  it  must  be  confessed 
that,  backed  by  a  powerful  government  and  hierarchy  in 
England,  they  had  far  less  to  fear  from  the  presence  of 
Puritans  than  Puritans,  proscribed  at  home,  might  not 
unnaturally  apprehend  from  the  presence  of  churchmen 
among  them.  The  colony  was  filled  with  hope,  which 
begat  tolerance,  and,  invigorated  by  immigration,  seemed 
fairly  set  forward  in  the  way  of  prosperity.  These  fair 
prospects,  however,  were  soon  to  be  blasted  by  an  untow- 
ard and  totally  unexpected  massacre  by  the  Indians.  The 
natives  had  given  no  sign ;  but  for  several  years  some  thirty 
Indians  had  been  maturing  a  conspiracy  for  the  extirpa- 
tion of  the  whites.  On  March  22,  1622,  they  fell  upon 
the  colonists  and  slaughtered*  without  distinction  of  age  or 
sex,  three  hundred  and  forty-seven  persons.  As  a  result, 
many  plantations  were  abandoned.  Of  eighty,  only  eight 
remained  ;  and  out  of  four  thousand  inhabitants,  only  about 
two  thousand  were  left.  Thorp,  who  had  devoted  himself 
to  the  interests  of  the  Indians,  was  among  their  victims. 
A  spirit  of  unrelenting  severity  was   not   unnaturally 

1  Bancroft,  "  United  States,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  156-196. 


26  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chai>.  ii. 

engendered  in  the  minds  of  the  colonists  by  this  massacre. 
Previous  to  it  the  general  sentiment  had  been  kindly,  but 
not  without  exception.  A  year  before  the  massacre,  Rev. 
Jonas  Stockham,  in  a  letter  written  to  Whitaker  to  be  for- 
warded to  the  council,  had  declared  that  "  Mars  and  Mi- 
nerva "  must  go  hand  in  hand  to  effect  any  good  among  the 
Indians,  and  that  "  till  their  Priests  and  Ancients  have  their 
throats  cut  there  is  no  hope  to  bring  them  to  conversion." 
This  exceptional  opinion  now  became  general.  Smith,  in 
his  "  Virginia,"  says  the  massacre  "  caused  them  all  to  be- 
lieve the  opinion  of  Master  Stockham."  The  thought  of 
civilizing  the  Indians  was  deemed  chimerical ;  the  purpose 
to  assist  them  was  denounced  as  enthusiastic.  After  all 
the  appointments  and  endowments,  neither  the  college  at 
Henrico  nor  the  Indian  school  at  Charles  City  was  pro- 
ceeded with.  Years  elapsed  before  the  attempt  to  estab- 
lish a  college  was  renewed.  Indian  missions  had  received 
their  death-blow. ^  The  colony  slowly  recovered  from  the 
great  disaster.  Among  the  thirty- five  laws  passed  two 
years  after  it,  the  first  seven  were  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  the  church,  providing  for  the  erection  of  houses  of 
worship,  and  setting  apart  of  burial-grounds;  also  for  uni- 
formity of  faith  and  worship  with  the  English  Church; 
enforcing  attendance  at  public  worship,  enjoining  respect- 
ful treatment  and  the  payment  of  a  settled  stipend  to  the 
colonial  clergy,  and  prescribing  a  yearly  fast  on  the  anni- 
versary of  the  massacre ;  but  no  mention  was  made  of  re- 
ligious exertions  for  the  natives.  The  adoption  of  these 
laws  was  the  last  act  of  legislation  which  affected  the 
church  under  the  government  of  the  company.  On  June 
1 6,  1624,  the  charter  was  annulled  by  a  judicial  decree,  and 
Virginia  passed  under  the  immediate  control  of  the  king. 
The  decree  was  brought  about  by  James  I.  because  he 

1   Hawks,  "  Virginia,"  p.  41. 


THE  KING  ANNULS    THE    COLONIAL    CHARTER.       27 

thought  it  Hkely  to  please  Spain  (to  a  princess  of  which 
country  he  wished  to  marry  Prince  Charles),  and  also  be- 
cause he  was  offended  at  the  resistance  to  his  attempts  to 
coerce  the  action  of  the  company,  who  had  failed  to  ap- 
point all  his  nominees  to  office.  Every  misfortune  of  the 
colony  served  as  an  argument  for  abrogating  its  charter; 
and  a  special  ground  of  accusation  was  lack  of  missionary 
zeal  for  the  conversion  and  education  of  the  Indians. 

This  change  of  government  produced  no  direct  altera- 
tion in  religious  matters.  The  previous  laws  continued  in 
force.  The  decisions  of  the  High  Court  of  Commissioners 
at  home  were  acknowledged  as  authoritative,  but  distance 
relaxed  their  practical  severity.  The  church  slowly  gath- 
ered strength,  and,  being  considered  a  branch  of  the  Estab- 
lishment at  home,  claimed  the  protection  of  the  same  laws. 
Thus  when,  in  1628,  Lord  Baltimore,  a  Roman  Catholic, 
visited  Virginia,  the  Assembly  voted  to  require  of  him 
to  take  the  oaths  of  supremacy  and  allegiance.  Sir  John 
Henry  became  governor  in  1629,  and  then  mildness  in  the 
administration  of  ecclesiastical  laws  ceased.  During  the 
previous  years  of  the  colony's  existence  no  record  is  found 
of  any  severity  inflicted  for  nonobservance  of  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  church  ;  but  nov/  an  act  was  passed,  at 
Henry's  instigation,  enjoining,  under  severe  penalties, 
strict  conformity  to  the  canons  of  the  church.  The  harsh 
enactments  of  this  period  are  not  so  much  an  evidence  that 
religion  was  at  a  low  ebb  as  that  the  severity  now  become 
the  fashion  in  England  was  deemed  to  be  an  acceptable 
offering  to  the  authorities  there.  The  punishments  inflicted 
were  at  first  for  practical,  not  doctrinal  offenses ;  not  for 
holding  a  different  faith,  but  for  not  living  up  to  that  which 
all  received.  This,  however,  soon  changed.  Fresh  laws 
were  enacted  for  the  expulsion  of  Puritans,  and  threats 
were  issued  against  all  who  showed  sympathy  with  them. 


28  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

This  was  done  while  there  were  no  Puritans  in  the  colony 
"  to  prevent  the  infection  from  reaching  this  country."  ^ 
In  general,  Henry's  tyranny  was  so  intolerable  that  the  As- 
sembly (1635)  thrust  him  out  of  the  government,  in  which, 
however,  he  was  reinstated  by  the  king ;  and  the  church 
being  under  the  Assembly,  and  the  Assembly  being  now 
abjectly  subject  to  the  governor,  the  church  was  the  chief 
sufferer.  Her  vital  energies  sank  rapidly  under  the  baneful 
influences  which  oppressed  her.  The  appeal  of  the  colonists 
for  ministers,  for  whose  support  they  themselves  began  to 
provide,  met  with  a  lamentable  response.  "  Very  few  of 
good  conversation  would  adventure  thither,  yet  many  came 
such  as  wore  black  coats  and  could  babble  in  a  Pulpit,  roare 
in  a  tavern,  exact  from  the  Parishioners,  and  rather  by  their 
dissoluteness  destroy  than  feed  their  flocks.  The  country 
was  loath  to  be  wholly  without  teachers,  and  would  there- 
fore rather  retain  these  than  be  destitute,  yet  endeavours 
were  made  for  better  in  their  places,  which  were  obtained, 
and  these  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing  were  questioned, 
silenced  and  some  forced  to^  depart  the  country."  2 

The  absence  of  spiritual  control  kept  the  ministers  under 
secular  authority.  They  were  liable  to  be  tried  for  spirit- 
ual offenses  by  the  judges  of  the  courts.  Their  bishop  was 
in  England,  and  no  ecclesiastical  officer  was  delegated  by 
him  to  exercise  authority  in  his  name.  Archbishop  Laud, 
whose  authority  was  now  paramount  and  direct  in  colonial 
ecclesiastical  affairs,  at  one  time  entertained  the  project  of 
sending  out  a  bishop  to  New  England  to  keep  down  the 
Puritans;  but  in  Virginia,  where  the  services  of  the  epis- 
copal office  were  required,  and  would  have  been  gratefully 
received,  its  institution  was  never  thought  of.  His  home 
policy  of  "  vigor  and  rigor  "  animated  the  administration 

1  Henning,  "  Virginia  Statutes,"  p.  223. 

2  "  Leah  and  Rachel,"  a  pamphlet  by  John  Hammond  (1656). 


MISSIONARIES  SENT   TO    VIRGINIA.  29 

of  the  colony,  and  it  provoked  reaction.  Up  to  Henry's 
arrival  (1629)  the  colonists  were  content  to  remain  in 
the  bosom  of  the  church  in  which  they  had  been  reared. 
Now,  as  a  consequence  of  the  exasperation  of  his  rule,  arj 
appeal,  signed  by  seventy-one  persons,  was  made,  in  th(| 
first  year  of  his  successor's  (Sir  William  Berkeley)  adminisj 
tration,  to  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  "  to  send 
ministers  of  the  gospel  into  that  region,  that  its  inhabitants 
might  be  privileged  with  the  preaching  and  ordinances  of 
Jesus  Christ."  1  In  consequence,  three  persons  went  out 
as  Congregational  missionaries  to  the  Church  of  England 
in  Virginia.  An  act  of  the  legislature  of  the  same  year 
cut  short  their  stay.  All  non-Episcopal  ministers  were  by 
it  forbidden  to  officiate  in  the  colony.  Yet,  as  Governor 
Winthrop  says,  "  Though  the  State  did  silence  the  minis- 
ters because  they  would  not  conform  to  the  order  of  Eng- 
land, yet  the  people  resorted  to  private  houses  to  hear 
them."^  But  the  attachment  of  Virginia  to  the  Church 
of  England  was  overwhelming  and  conscientious,  though, 
even  among  devoted  churchmen,  tyranny  provoked  such 
symptoms  of  revolt.  When  the  revolution  came,  and  the 
Commonwealth  was  established  in  England,  Virginia  was 
loyal.  She  was  the  last  colony  to  submit  to  the  Parliament. 
Sir  William  Berkeley  had  come  over  as  governor  in  1642, 
instructed  to  keep  out  innovations  in  religion;  and  when, 
after  the  execution  of  Charles  I.,  he  resolved  not  to  sur- 
render to  the  Parliament  without  a  struggle,  he  was  backed 
by  large  numbers  of  Cavaliers,  who  had  drifted  during  the 
political  troubles  of  England  into  Virginia,  whose  popula- 
tion was  now  computed  at  twenty  thousand.  When  at  last 
obliged  to  capitulate,  he  succeeded  in  securing  terms  liberal 
for  the  time.      It  was  stipulated  that,  in  regard  to  church 

1  Emerson,  "  Historical  .Sketch  of  the  First  Church  in  Boston,"  p.  75. 

2  Savage,  "  Winthrop  "  ;  Hubbard,  "  History  of  New  England." 


30  PROTESTANr  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ii. 

affairs,  the  use  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  should  be 
permitted  for  one  year  ensuing,  "  provided  that  those  parts 
which  relate  to  Kingship  and  government  be  not  used 
publiquely;"  also  "the  continuance  of  ministers  and  the 
payment  of  their  dues  to  be  left  as  they  were,  for  the  year 
ensuing."  It  is  probable  that  a  further  use  of  the  Prayer- 
book  was  connived  at ;  for,  while  "  no  formal  injunction 
of  obedience  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  English 
Church  occurs  in  any  records  of  the  Grand  Assembly  dur- 
ing the  Commonwealth,  all  matters  relating  to  the  minis- 
ters and  parochial  affairs  were  left  to  the  discretion  of  the 
people.  In  the  exercise  of  their  discretion,  the  majority  of 
the  people  were  anxious  to  retain,  and  it  is  believed  did 
retain,  the  teaching  of  the  Church  of  England."  ^ 

As  a  result  of  the  political  disturbance  there  was  an  in- 
crease of  unconcern  about  religion.  Many  places  became 
destitute  of  ministers ;  for  the  people  ceased  to  pay  their 
customary  dues,  and  religious  instruction  was  neglected. 
At  the  time  of  the  Restoration,  of  the  fifty  parishes  into 
which  the  colony  was  now  divided,  the  greater  number 
were  without  glebe,  parsonage,  church,  and  minister;  in- 
deed, there  were  not  more  than  ten  ministers  left  in  the 
colony.  The  colonial  legislature  acted  promptly  on  the 
instructions  given  to  Sir  William  Berkeley  on  his  reappoint- 
ment as  royal  governor,  and  provision  was  made  "  for  the 
building  and  due  furnishing  of  churches,  for  the  canonical 
performance  of  the  liturgy,  for  the  ministration  of  God's 
Word,  for  a  due  observance  of  the  Sunday,  for  the  baptism 
and  Christian  education  of  the  young."  At  the  same  time 
the  spirit  of  proscription  rife  in  England  was  reproduced  in 
the  colony  in  these  very  enactments.  By  them  any  Quaker 
attending  "  an  unlawful  assembly  or  conventicle  "  must  pay 
a  fine  of  two  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco  for  each  offense ; 
1  Anderson,  "  Colonial  Church,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  22. 


PROSCRIPTION  OF  QUAKERS.  3  I 

and  should  he  refuse  to  take  his  child  to  be  baptized  by  a 
lawful  minister  within  the  county,  he  should  be  amerced 
two  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco.  No  Quakers  were 
hanged,  as  in  New  England ;  but  the  proscription  of  them 
by  Cromwell  during  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  dread  of 
them  subsequently  (which  led  Charles  II.  to  write  to  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts,  "  We  cannot  be  understood  to 
wish  that  any  indulgence  be  granted  to  those  persons 
commonly  called  Quakers  "),  engendered  a  kindred  spirit 
in  Virginia,  and  gave  rise  to  a  decree  which  exacted  a 
penalty  of  a  hundred  pounds  from  the  commander  of  any 
vessel  which  should  bring  a  Quaker  into  the  colony  ;  and  or- 
dered that  all  Quakers  who  might  arrive  should  at  once  be 
imprisoned  until  they  had  given  security  to  depart;  that  if 
they  returned  a  third  time  they  were  to  be  tried  as  felons  ; 
and  that  no  person  was  to  entertain  Quakers,  or  permit  any 
of  their  assemblies  to  be  held  in  or  near  his  house,  upon 
pain  of  paying  a  hundred  pounds.  That  there  was  political 
motive  mingled  with  this  religious  proscription  is  true  ;  and 
it  is  also  true  that  the  early  Quakers  were  very  different 
from  their  more  peaceable  descendants.  But  the  principle  of 
religious  toleration  was  also  wholly  absent.  When  James  II. 
ascended  the  throne  the  dread  of  popery  added  a  new 
element  to  the  ecclesiastical  situation.  The  rumor  of  a 
plot  between  the  Indians  and  the  few  papists  in  the  colony 
excited  a  great  commotion  ;  and,  loyal  as  Virginia  had  been 
to  the  Stuarts,  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary  gave  great 
relief  and  was  heartily  welcomed. 

In  the  meantime,  after  Berkeley  had  been  reinsfated  by 
the  royal  commission  of  Charles  II.,  the  control  in  eccle- 
siastical matters  had  been  put  in  the  hands  of  twelve  ves- 
trymen in  each  parish,  who  were  to  fill  their  own  vacancies. 
This  had  a  great  influence  on  the  state  of  the  church;  for 
the  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  church  and  of  the  poor 


32  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

were  assessed  each  year  by  the  vestry ;  and  the  parishes, 
because  they  paid  the  minister,  claimed  the  right  of  pres- 
entation, and  could  exercise  it  despite  the  governor,  since 
they  could  refuse  to  pay  the  salary.  The  vestries,  indeed, 
not  unfrequently  avoided  presentation  altogether  by  hiring 
ministers  from  year  to  year.  Thus  the  clergy  were  made 
subservient  to  the  will  of  those  who  supported  them.  There 
were  many  good  men  among  them ;  but  the  system  was 
such  that  the  character  of  many  neither  commanded  nor 
deserved  respect.  In  the  report  of  Berkeley  in  167 1  to  the 
Commissioners  of  Foreign  Plantations,  on  the  condition  of 
the  colony,  wherein  he  reported  a  population  of  forty  thou- 
sand, including  two  thousand  negro  slaves  and  six  thousand 
'white  servants,  he  speaks  thus  of  the  church:  "There  are 
forty-eight  parishes,  and  the  ministers  well  paid.  The  clergy 
by  my  consent  would  be  better  if  they  would  pray  oftener 
and  preach  less.  But  of  all  other  commodities,  so  of  this, 
the  worst  are  sent  us.  But  I  thank  God  there  are  no  free 
schools,  nor  printing,  and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have  these 
hundred  years."  The  governor  doubtless  voiced  the  pre- 
vailing sentiment  of  the  community ;  and  that  sentiment 
was  not  stimulating  to  earnestness  and  devotion.  The 
number  of  parishes  was  often  twice  as  great  as  the  number 
of  the  clergy.  Morgan  Godwin,  who  had  been  a  student 
at  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  and  an  ordained  minister  in  Vir- 
ginia, and  afterward  a  missionary  in  the  Barbadoes,  attests 
in  a  letter  to  Berkeley  that  "  two-thirds  of  the  preachers 
are  made  up  of  leaden  lay-priests  of  the  Vesteries  ordina- 
tion [evidently  lay  readers]  and  are  both  the  grief  and 
shame  of  the  rightly  ordained  clergy  there.  Nothing  of 
this  ever  reaches  your  Excellencies  ear,"  he  adds,  "  these 
hungry  patrons  knowing  better  how  to  make  benefit  by 
their  vices."  He  describes  the  parishes  as  extending, 
some  of  them,  sixty  or  seventy  miles  in  length,  and  lying 


COMMISSARY  BLAIR.  33 

void  for  many  years  to  save  charges.  Jamestown,  he  dis- 
tinctly states,  had  been  left,  with  short  intervals,  in  this 
destitute  condition  for  twenty  years.  "  All  things,"  he 
adds,  "  concerning  the  church  and  religion  were  left  to  the 
mercy  of  the  people.  And,  last  of  all,  to  propagate  Chris- 
tianity among  the  heathen,  whether  natives  or  slaves 
brought  from  other  parts,  although  (as  must  piously  be 
supposed)  it  were  the  only  end  of  God's  discovering  these 
countries  to  us,  yet  is  that  lookt  upon  by  our  new  race  of 
Christians,  so  idle  and  ridiculous,  so  utterly  needless  and 
unnecessary,  that  no  man  can  forfeit  his  judgment  more 
than  by  any  proposal  looking  or  tending  that  way." 

This  melancholy  state  of  things  was  not  permitted  to 
exist  without  some  effort  to  remedy  it.  In  a  pamphlet  en- 
titled "  Virginia's  Cure,"  by  one  who  declares  himself  to 
have  been  an  eye-witness  for  two  years  of  the  things  which 
he  describes,  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  colony  was  brought 
to  the  notice  of  the  Bishops  of  London  and  Winchester. 
After  stating  many  of  the  evils  we  have  already  noticed, 
he  appeals  for  the  presence  of  a  bishop  in  order  to  coun- 
teract them.  There-seems  to  have  been  a  serious  attempt  to 
grant  this  appeal.  The  nomination  of  the  Rev.  Alexander 
Murray  to  that  office  was,  according  to  Anderson,  actually 
declared  at  one  period  of  Clarendon's  administration  ;  but 
the  matter  proceeded  no  further.  However,  in  1689,  the 
Rev.  James  Blair,  a  Scotchman,  whom  Compton,  Bishop  of 
London,  persuaded  to  go  as  a  missionary  to  Virginia  in 
1685,  was  appointed  commissary  of  the  bishop,  the  first 
commissary  duly  commissioned  for  any  of  the  colonies. 
He  had  authority,  as  representative  of  the  bishop,  to  make 
visitations  throughout  the  territory  assigned  to  him.  He 
could  inspect  churches,  deliver  charges,  and  in  some  meas- 
ure administer  discipline ;  but  his  appointment  was  a  very 
imperfect  rernedy  for  the  existing  evils.      Confirmation  and 


34  FROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

ordination  were  still  left  in  abeyance,  and  thorough  disci- 
pline was  impossible.  Dr.  Blair,  however,  magnified  his 
office.  He  was  a  practical  man,  of  clear  mind  and  indefati- 
gable perseverance  ;  and,  being  sincerely  religious,  his  ser- 
vices proved  invaluable  to  the  church  in  Virginia.  He  at 
once  perceived  that  the  colony  must  educate  its  own  clergy 
in  order  to  secure  men  apt  to  the  situation ;  and  so  he  at 
once  set  about  the  revival  of  the  project  for  the  erection  of 
a  college,  originally  suggested  in  1662.  Receiving  author- 
ity from  the  provincial  legislature  to  present  to  William 
and  Mary  the  petition  for  a  charter  to  found  the  college,  he 
went  to  England  for  that  purpose.  The  queen  was  favor- 
able, and  the  king  gave  two  thousand  pounds  due  to  the 
crown  from  Virginia.  The  merchants  of  London  had  al- 
ready given  twenty-five  hundred  pounds,  and  Blair  himself 
contributed,  from  a  sum  presented  to  him  by  the  Grand 
Assembly.  The  institution,  according  to  Dr.  Blair,  never 
received  the  benefit  of  one  half  of  what  was  thus  given. 
He  met  with  discouragements  and  difficulties  at  every  step. 
When  he  urged  Seymour,  the  attorney-general,  to  prepare 
the  required  charter,  begging  him  to  consider  that  the 
people  in  Virginia  had  souls  to  be  saved  as  well  as  the 
people  in  England,  the  answer  was,  "  Souls!  Damn  your 
souls!  Make  tobacco."  But  the  charter  was  signed 
February  8,  1692-93.  It  stipulated  that  the  college 
should  be  called  by  the  name  of  "William  and  Mary"; 
and  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  the  General  Assem- 
bly passed  an  act  for  the  erection  of  the  building  on  the 
ground  between  the  York  and  James  rivers,  afterward 
chosen  as  the  site  of  the  city  of  Williamsburg.  The  pro- 
ceeds of  a  tax  on  tobacco  and  a  donation  of  twenty  thou- 
sand acres  of  choice  land,  and  certain  dues  imposed  on 
skins  and  furs,  were  appropriated  for  the  support  of  the 
institution,      The  privilege  of  returning  a  burgess  to  the 


COLLEGE    OF    WLLLLAM  AND  MARY.  35 

General  Assembly  was  also  conferred  on  the  college ;  and 
Blair  was  appointed  its  first  president.  The  building  was 
unfortunately  destroyed  by  fire  in  1705,  and  was  with 
much  labor  rebuilt.  The  college  eventually  became  a 
source  of  great  usefulness,  though  for  seventy  years  it* 
rarely  had  more  than  twenty  students  at  one  time.  It; 
could  not  at  once  supply  the  want  of  clergymen,  which 
was  a  principal  object  of  its  establishment.  In  the  regu- 
lation of  ecclesiastical  aff'airs  arising  from  this  want  the 
commissary  was  often  brought  into  collision  and  disagree- 
ment with  the  civil  authorities,  especially  with  Governors 
Andros  and  Nicholson.  The  church,  however,  sufi"ered  no 
lasting  disadvantage  from  these  dissensions,  which  were  in 
part  occasioned  by  Blair's  own  lack  of  gentleness  and  for- 
bearance. Whatever  his  infirmities,  they  were  the  faults  of 
a  man  eminently  in  earnest ;  and  it  is  written  of  him  that, 
"  with  the  single  exception  of  Dr.  Bray,  the  commissary  of 
Maryland,  there  was  no  clergyman  of  the  Establishment, 
ever  sent  to  this  country  during  its  colonial  existence,  to 
whom  the  church  in  the  southern  part  of  the  continent  was 
more  deeply  indebted."  -^  When  he  died,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty-eight,  he  had  been  in  orders  sixty-four  years, 
commissary  for  Virginia  fifty-three  years,  college  presi- 
dent forty-nine  years,  and  for  fifty  years  a  member  of  the 
king's  council. 

It  was  in  the  year  after  Dr.  Blair's  appointment  as  com- 
missary (1690)  that  a  new  feature  was  introduced  into  the 
ecclesiastical  life  of  the  colony  in  the  sending  of  a  number 
of  Huguenot  refugees  by  King  William  to  Virginia,  fol- 
lowed in  1699  by  another  body  of  six  hundred,  with  their 
clergy,  under  Philippe  de  Richebourg.  In  i  700  the  As- 
sembly of  Virginia  passed  an  act  making  these  French 
refugees  a  distinct  parish  by  themselves,  and  exempted 

1  F.  L.  Hawks,  D.D.,  "Virginia,"  p.  75. 


36  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

them  from  the  payment  of  all  taxes  for  seven  years.  They 
had  their  own  minister,  and  worshiped  after  their  own 
manner.  This  parish  of  King  William,  in  the  county  of 
Henrico,  formed  an  admirable  addition  to  the  society  of 
Virginia.  Many  of  the  descendants  of  these  Huguenots 
have  been  distinguished  in  the  history  of  the  State.  A 
similar  act  of  kindness  was  shown  in  1 7 1 3  to  a  small  body 
of  German  emigrants,  settlers  above  the  falls  of  the  Rap- 
pahannock, a  frontier  of  civilization,  whom  it  was  a  matter 
of  interest  to  the  colony  to  protect.  Like  the  French,  they 
were  formed  into  a  separate  parish  of  St.  George,  with 
power  to  employ  their  own  minister  on  their  own  terms, 
and  were  exempted  from  all  ordinary  taxes  for  ten  years. 
Thus  these  two  religious  communities,  differing  each  in  its 
own  way  from  the  Establishment,  were  fostered  by  it. 

At  this  same  period  laws  were  enacted  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  vice  and  the  restraint  of  blasphemy,  which  indicate 
a  state  of  irreligion  and  immorality  which  the  rulers  might 
well  seek  to  assuage  by  the  introduction  of  the  nobler  ele- 
ments of  these  foreign  communities.  However  inadequate 
this  civil  regulation  of  religious  offenses  may  seem  in  com- 
parison with  the  discipline  of  a  fully  equipped  church,  it 
shows  a  determination  of  the  government  to  assist  the 
community  in  the  light  of  religious  obligation.  Of  this 
evidence  is  again  given  by  the  appropriation  in  1718  of 
a  thousand  pounds  for  the  education  and  maintenance  of 
poor  native  children.  Sir  Alexander  Spotswood  went  in 
person  among  the  neighboring  tribes  of  Indians,  and  pre- 
vailed upon  them  to  send  their  children  to  be  educated. 
He  obtained  native  pupils  from  a  distance  of  more  than 
four  hundred  miles,  and  at  his  own  expense  established 
and  supported  a  preparatory  school  on  the  frontiers,  that 
Indian  lads  might  be  fitted  for  admission  into  the  college 
without  being  far  removed  from  their  parents. 


CHURCH  STATISTICS,  1720.  37 

At  this  time  (1720)  we  get  a  more  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  condition  of  the  church  than  formerly.  The  whole 
number  of  counties  in  Virginia  was  twenty-nine,  and  there 
were  forty-four  parishes.  These  parishes,  however,  were 
of  very  unequal  size.  Some  were  very  small,  and  some 
sixty  miles  long.  In  each  parish  there  was  a  church,  built 
of  stone,  brick,  or  wood,  which  was  enlarged  from  time  to 
time  and  sufficiently  furnished  for  the  decent  performance 
of  divine  service.  In  the  larger  parishes  there  were  one  or 
more  chapels  of  ease,  so  that  the  places  of  worship  num- 
bered about  seventy.  Every  parish,  moreover,  possessed 
a  dwelling-house  for  the  minister,  and  some  of  them 
glebes  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres.  More  than  half  the 
churches  of  the  Establishment  were  supplied  with  clergy- 
men ;  and  where  there  was  no  minister,  services  were  per- 
formed by  a  lay  reader.  To  outward  appearance  the 
condition  of  the  church  seemed  prosperous ;  but,  although 
a  hundred  and  fifteen  years  had  elapsed  since  the  first 
clergyman  landed  in  Virginia,  the  state  of  religion  was  low. 
There  is  evidence  that  some,  both  of  the  clergy  and  laity, 
were  sincerely  and  deeply  religious;  but  worthy  and  con- 
sistent Christians  did  not  form  a  large  class  of  the  popula- 
tion. The  cause  is  to  be  found  largely  in  the  manner  of 
the  appointment  of  the  clergy  and  the  absence  of  proper 
ecclesiastical  control  when  once  they  came  ;  and  then  in  the 
consequent  action  of  the  laity,  and  their  power,  through 
the  vestries,  of  silencing  or  starving  a  too  faithful  incum- 
bent. The  Bishop  of  London  was  the  ultimate  source  of 
a  clergyman's  commission  ;  but,  with  every  disposition  on 
his  part  to  send  only  deserving  clergymen  into  the  colony, 
he  was  liable  to  be  grossly  deceived,  and  he  had  not  a 
promising  class  to  select  from.  Inferior  powers  and  limited 
attainments  were  considered  sufficient  for  a  missionary  to 
Virginia;  and  persons  were  often  recommended  because 


38  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

it  was  deemed  advisable  to  get  them  away  from  England. 
When  one  arrived,  the  precarious  tenure  of  the  living 
tended  to  beget  a  time-serving  spirit  or  an  indifference  to 
an  earnest  discharge  of  his  duties.  Where  unworthiness 
was  manifest  there  could  not  be  an  efficient  ecclesiastical 
censure.  Far  removed  from  his  diocesan,  and  standing  in 
little  awe  of  a  commissary  whose  powers  were  limited,  an 
unworthy  man  might  offend  morals  and  yet  remain  in  the 
church,  a  reproach  to  her  ministry.  The  frequent  disputes 
between  pastors  and  people  were  due  generally  to  the 
harassing  uncertainty  concerning  support.  The  power  of 
vestries  in  this  regard  was  compulsory,  and  was  wielded 
often  most  oppressively ;  so  that  faithfulness  would  be 
visited  by  stoppage  of  supplies  and  dismissal  at  the  end  of 
a  year.  Vacancies,  occasioned  by  death,  remained  unfilled  ; 
the  election  of  a  successor  being  refused  in  order  to  escape 
the  payment  of  the  stipend.  Thus,  though  the  church  was 
nominally  under  the  protection  of  the  state,  it  experienced 
the  evils  of  an  alliance  without  reaping  its  advantages. 
Without  a  bishop,  without  a  native  clergy,  its  ecclesiastical 
constitution  was  too  feeble  to  give  it  a  vigorous  life  and 
discipline ;  and  the  practice  of  punishing  the  spiritual 
offenses  of  the  laity  by  temporal  penalties  begot  great  de- 
fiance and  hatred  among  the  population.  In  consequence, 
irregularities  of  various  kinds  in  the  use  of  the  liturgy  crept 
in,  "  every  minister  being  a  kind  of  Independent  in  his  own 
parish."  ^ 

In  the  spiritual  decline  of  the  colony  the  first  endow- 
ments of  the  college  were  lost  through  the  feebleness  and 
indolence  which  prevailed.  Jones  describes  it  as  being  for 
a  long  time  "  a  college  without  a  chapel,  without  a  scholar- 
ship, without  a  statute ;  having  a  library  without  books,  a 
president  without  a  fixed  salary,  a  burgess  without  cer- 

1  Jones,  "  Present  State  of  Virginia"  (London,  1724). 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  LIFE  IN   VIRGINIA.  39 

tainty  of  electors."  Owing  to  the  difficulty,  expense,  and 
danger  of  sending  the  children  of  the  wealthy  to  England 
for  their  education,  many  were  allowed  to  grow  up  with 
most  imperfect  training.  The  smallpox  was  at  that  period 
such  a  scourge  as  to  greatly  limit  the  number  of  applicants, 
both  for  orders  and  for  education,  to  the  mother-country. 
There  was,  in  consequence,  a  great  dearth  of  literary  cul- 
ture ;  and  society,  formed  amid  the  influences  of  a  plenti- 
ful provision  for  physical  wants,  was  without  a  correspond- 
ing intellectual  stimulus.  The  chmate  was  charming,  the 
scenery  beautiful,  the  soil  fertile,  the  needs  of  subsistence 
easily  procured  ;  but  there  was  no  city  life,  and  none  of  the 
mental  friction  which  comes  of  its  busy  intercourse.  The 
planters  lived  by  themselves  on  large  estates.  The  culti- 
vation of  tobacco  was  the  absorbing  occupation.  In  ex- 
change for  this  commodity,  shipped  directly  in  his  own 
vessel,  from  his  own  port  on  the  river  or  bay,  the  planter 
could  receive  at  his  own  door  everything  which  he  re- 
quired which  he  could  not  raise.  He  imported  his  common 
household  utensils ;  and  such  repairs  as  he  needed  were 
done  by  his  own  hands  on  his  own  estate.  The  develop- 
ment of  an  aristocratic  class  was  inevitable ;  a  class  char- 
acterized by  a  love  of  social  intercourse  and  a  liberal  hos- 
pitality combined  with  high-bred  courtesy,  but  unmarked 
by  an  enlarged  intellectual  cultivation.  The  commoner 
people  formed  a  class  by  themselves.  As  merchants  they 
were  petty,  if  prosperous,  and  as  mechanics  less  intelli- 
gent and  progressive  than  they  would  have  been  had 
there  been  more  general  demand  for  their  labor  and  more 
competition.  While  the  chief  towns,  as  Jamestown  and 
Williamsburg,  remained  petty  villages,  there  could  be  no 
vigorous  development  of  an  influential  industrial  class 
apart  from  the  plantations,  and  there  the  institution  of 
slavery  served  to  generate  an  atmosphere  unfavorable  to 


40  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ii. 

the  existence  of  self-reliant  and  self-assertive  workmen. 
Though  the  first  slaves  had  been  introduced  as  early  as 
1620,  it  was  not  until  1650  that,  under  the  stimulus  of  the 
tobacco-culture,  their  number  began  to  rapidly  increase. 
Their  presence  served  to  place  a  stigma  on  the  white  popu- 
lation who  were  forced  to  labor  with  their  hands.  The  laws 
regulating  the  colony  in  1662  enacted  that  children  should 
follow  the  condition  of  the  mother,  and  thus  mulatto  chil- 
dren were  slaves;  and  in  1667  the  Virginia  Assembly  or- 
dained that  conversion  and  baptism  should  not  set  the  slave 
free;  for  it  had  been  a  long-cherished  idea  that  a  heathen, 
but  not  a  Christian,  could  be  reduced  to  servitude.  Thus 
the  law  intended  to  extend  religious  privileges  to  the 
slaves,  and  give  them  the  benefit  of  Christian  sacraments 
and  teaching,  tended  also  to  perpetuate  and  extend  the 
institution.  When,  in  1756,  the  population  had  reached 
293,000,  the  negroes  amounted  to  120,000.  It  was  under 
circumstances  such  as  these  that  the  church  had  to  perform 
its  task;  imperfectly  organized,  for  the  most  part  poorly 
served,  and  hampered  by  the  fetters  of  the  state,  rather 
than  made  independent  by  its  support.  It  is  not  strange 
that  it  did  not  perform  it  well. 

When,  then,  in  i  740,  Whitefield  paid  a  visit  to  Virginia, 
the  field  was  white  for  the  harvest  of  his  earnest  enthusiasm. 
He  was  still  looked  upon  as  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  the  aged  commissary  cordially  received  him. 
By  Blair's  invitation  he  preached  at  Williamsburg  and  other 
towns  of  the  province.  He  greatly  stirred  the  people,  and 
manifested  the  same  power  over  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  men  here  as  everywhere.  This  visit  stirred  in  many 
quarters  a  more  earnest  Christian  zeal  and  life;  but,  while 
it  in  a  degree  affected  the  Establishment,  it  chiefly  tended 
to  build  up  dissenting  communions,  which  from  this  time 
on  became  powerful. 


DISSENT  IN   VIRGINIA.  4 1 

A  number  of  Scotch  and  Irish  Presbyterians  had  for  some 
years  been  gradually  gathering  in  the  outlying  districts  of 
eastern  Virginia;  and  in  1740  and  1743  Samuel  Morris,  a 
man  of  unusual  earnestness  and  devotion,  held  meetings  for  • 
them  in  his  house,  reading  passages  to  them  from  Luther's 
"  Commentary  on  the  Galatians,"  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress," 
and  Whitefield's  sermons.  This  incidental  gathering  be- 
came a  movement,  as  the  interest  increased  and  the  at- 
tendants multiplied.  The  attention  of  the  Presbytery  of 
New  Castle  in  Delaware  was  called  to  it,  and  Robinson  and 
Roan  were  sent  to  visit  the  people,  and  introduced  among 
them  the  Confession  of  Faith.  Samuel  Davies,  afterward 
president  of  Princeton  College,  New  Jersey,  was  the  most 
distinguished  of  those  who  organized  and  extended  the 
operations  of  these  assemblies.  He  was  at  this  time  a 
young  man,  of  great  talents  and  devoted  piety.  By  his 
marked  ability  he  won  for  them,  against  the  opposition  of 
Peyton  Randolph,  the  attorney-general,  the  liberty  of  cele- 
brating without  molestation  their  religious  services.  On  his 
arrival  he  complied  with  the  laws  of  the  colony  concerning 
dissenters.  He  obtained  a  license  for  each  meeting-house, 
taking  the  oaths  of  fidelity  to  the  government,  and  subscrib- 
ing to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England, 
with  certain  enumerated  exceptions ;  such  as  the  Thirty- 
fourth,  "  concerning  traditions  of  the  church  ;"  the  Thirty- 
fifth,  "  of  the  homilies;"  the  Thirty-sixth,  "of  the  conse- 
cration of  bishops  and  ministers;"  and  so  much  of  the 
Twentieth  as  declares  "  the  church  hath  power  to  decree 
rites  and  ceremonies,  and  is  of  authority  in  matters  of  faith." 
He  thus  obtained  licenses  for  four  meeting-houses,  to  which 
three  more  were  soon  added.  He  divided  his  labors  among 
these  seven,  some  of  which  were  forty  miles  distant  from 
one  another.  In  three  years  he  had  gathered  large  congre- 
gations and  enrolled  three  hundred  communicants.     The 


42  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ii. 

impression  he  made  was  a  lasting  one,  and  introduced  an 
earnest  religious  dissent  as  a  permanent  element  into  the 
life  of  Virginia,  which  from  that  time  greatly  influenced  the 
Establishment ;  for  which  reason  it  has  been  dwelt  upon. 
Of  course  it  met  with  strong  opposition.  The  governor 
protested,  claiming  that  the  Toleration  Act  of  the  first 
year  of  William  and  Mary  did  not  extend  to  Virginia. 
Davies  argued  that,  in  that  case,  the  Act  of  Uniformity  did 
not.  The  verdict  of  the  court  of  Williamsburg  was  in  his 
favor,  and  it  was  afterward  confirmed  by  the  opinion  of 
the  attorney-general  of  England.  Dissent,  needless  but 
for  the  apathy  of  the  Establishment  and  the  neglect  of  her 
oflficers,  became  thus  legitimate  and  powerful. 

Efforts  for  the  quickening  and  extension  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  western  part  of  the  State  were  at  this 
same  period  put  forth  by  an  earnest  layman.  Morgan 
Morgan,  a  native  of  Wales,  emigrated  to  Virginia  from 
Pennsylvania,  and  in  1 740  erected  the  first  Episcopal 
church  in  the  valley  of  Virginia.  It  is  supposed  to  still 
exist  in  the  "Mill  Creek  Church"  of  the  parish  of  Win- 
chester. Morgan  was  one  of  those  thoroughly  earnest 
Christians  unremitting  in  his  efforts  to  carry  religion  home 
to  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men.  He  never  intrenched  on 
the  province  of  the  clergyman,  though  often  no  clergy- 
man could  be  had ;  but  what  a  layman  might  do  he  de- 
votedly did.  He  visited  the  sick  and  dying;  he  pressed 
home  the  truths  of  the  gospel  on  his  neighbors ;  he  raised 
his  family  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  His 
son,  who  bore  his  name,  officiated  when  only  sixteen  as 
lay  reader  in  the  church  which  his  father  had  erected. 
A  clergyman  could  seldom  be  had ;  but  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God  was  not  neglected  on  that  account.  The 
younger  Morgan,  like  the  elder,  was  instant  in  season  and 
out  of  season,  doing  what  a  layman  lawfully  might  do.     He 


EVANGELISTIC  LABORS   OF  MORGAN.  43 

ministered  often  in  vacant  churches  where  there  was  no 
clergyman,  and,  being  in  easy  circumstances,  determined 
to  devote  himself  exclusively  to  keeping  alive  and  quick- 
ening piety  in  the  church  of  his  fathers.  As  was  written 
of  him,  "  In  a  dark  day,  when  desolation  and  death  seemed 
brooding  over  her  interests,  he  commenced  a  career  of 
active  exertion,  and  by  efforts  of  the  most  disinterested 
nature  revived  the  attachment  of  her  friends  and  kept  her 
from  descending  to  the  dust.  Even  when  encumbered 
with  the  weight  of  years  his  labors  were  continued,  and 
were  fruitful.  A  welcome  visitor  everywhere,  beloved  by 
rich  and  poor,  he  gathered  large  and  attentive  audiences, 
and  ministered  faithfully  to  their  souls.  It  is  grateful  to 
recognize  so  earnest  a  spirit  among  the  laity  amid  the  spir- 
itual dearth  of  the  clergy.  It  is  a  striking  instance  of  the 
power  of  the  church  to  promote  its  true  life  when  once  the 
spirit  of  life  animates  its  members  and  ministers." 

A  cause  which  alienated,  to  a  vast  extent,  the  aflfections 
of  the  people  from  the  church  lay  not  merely  in  the  spirit- 
ual supineness  of  the  ministry,  but  chiefly  in  a  determined 
effort  on  their  part  to  defend  themselves  from  the  exactions 
of  the  laity  in  regard  to  their  stipends.  These  were  pay- 
able, by  the  law  of  1696,  in  tobacco  ;  and  whatever  afifected 
the  price  of  this  commodity  affected  the  living  of  the  clergy. 
In  1755  and  1758  there  was  a  great  scarcity  in  the  tobacco 
crop,  and  prices  rose  accordingly.  A  relief  act  was  in  each 
of  these  years  passed,  allowing  parishioners  to  pay  their 
dues  to  the  clergy  at  the  old  price  of  tobacco;  that  is,  at 
two  thirds  less  than  its  present  market  price.  The  clergy 
appealed,  through  their  commissary,  to  the  Bishop  of 
London  and  the  Board  of  Trade  at  home,  and  finally  to 
the  king ;  and  they  appealed  successfully.  The  act  of  1758 
was  declared  null  and  void.  The  clergy,  through  one  of 
their  number,  brought  the  question  to  an  issue  in  the  pro- 


44  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ii. 

vincial  courts,  and  the  court  decided  in  their  favor.  This 
judgment  was  most  unwelcome  to  the  general  public;  but 
the  only  point  which  remained  for  the  jury  to  determine 
was  the  amount  of  damages  sustained  by  the  plaintiff.  The 
defendants  would  not  give  up.  They  secured  Patrick 
Henry  who  had  even  then  a  considerable  reputation  for 
courage  and  eloquence,  to  argue  their  case  in  the  ensuing 
term.  So  great  was  the  interest  excited  that,  when  the 
case  came  on,  multitudes  unable  to  gain  admission  to  the 
court-room  clambered  up  the  windows  to  see  and  hear  what 
they  could.  Henry  denounced  as  intolerable  the  decision 
of  the  council  at  home,  and  declared  that  the  king,  by 
whose  authority  such  decision  was  enforced,  was  not  a 
father  of  his  people,  but  a  tyrant.  The  jury,  as  well  as 
the  audience,  were  spellbound  by  the  magic  power  of  the 
advocate.  The  verdict  of  a  penny  damages  proclaimed  the 
greatness  of  his  victory.  He  was  carried  in  triumph  from 
the  court-room  to  receive  the  plaudits  of  the  exulting  mul- 
titudes without.  The  adverse  influence  excited  against  the 
whole  church  of  Virginia  by  these  proceedings  was  pro- 
digious. The  clergy  as  a  body  never  recovered  from  the 
blow.  They  made  no  appeal  against  the  verdict,  and 
deemed  all  further  resistance  to  be  vain. 

Though  the  cause  of  the  clergy  would  now  be  generally 
deemed  just,  no  time  could  have  been  more  inauspicious 
than  this  for  directing  public  attention  to  the  subject  of 
their  claim.  The  low  state  of  morals,  both  of  the  clergy 
and  laity,  had  caused  a  corresponding  reaction  in  the  com- 
munity against  them.  Various  forms  of  dissent  were  be- 
coming popular  and  prevalent.  The  Baptists  were  rapidly 
increasing,  and  their  bitterness  toward  the  church  was 
extreme.  It  was  not  unnatural  that  it  should  be  so.  No 
dissenters  in  Virginia  experienced,  for  a  time,  harsher  treat- 
ment than  the  Baptists.     They  were  beaten  and  imprisoned. 


BAPTISTS  AND  METHODISTS.  45 

This  persecution  created  for  them  hosts  of  friends.  Crowds 
would  gather  around  their  prisons  to  hear  them  preach  from 
the  grated  windows.  Men  began  to  suspect  that  the  Estab- 
lished Church  was  proving  a  burden  instead  of  a  blessing. 
The  disastrous  issue  of  the  parsons'  cause  gave  fresh  hope 
and  courage  to  the  assailants  of  the  church.  The  followers 
of  Wesley,  also,  began  to  appear  in  considerable  numbers 
in  Virginia.  Though  they  claimed  still  to  be  a  portion  of 
the  English  Church,  the  fervor  of  their  piety  and  the  en- 
thusiasm of  their  methods  tended  to  create  a  distinction 
between  them  and  the  lethargic  clergy  of  the  Establish- 
ment. Some  of  them,  however,  it  quickened.  Jarratt,  who 
had  become  spiritually  moved  by  them,  crossed  the  ocean 
and  received  ordination  from  the  Bishop  of  Chester.  On 
his  return,  shortly  after  the  decision  of  the  parsons'  cause, 
he  entered  upon  his  labors  in  the  colony.  He  excited  the 
scorn  of  the  formalists  by  the  earnestness  of  his  preaching ; 
but  amid  all  opposition  he  continued  steadfast,  multiplying 
his  labors,  never  weary  in  his  work  for  souls,  and  with 
hope  unshaken  for  a  better  state  of  things.  He  clung  with 
strong  affection  to  his  church  in  the  mid.st  of  her  humilia- 
tion. While  others  despised  and  forsook  her,  he  renewed 
the  expression  of  his  belief  in  the  truth  of  her  doctrine 
and  apostolic  order  and  the  edifying  spirit  of  her  worship. 
To  him,  and  such  as  he,  the  first  workings  of  the  renewed 
energy  of  the  church  in  Virginia  are  to  be  traced. 

The  political  aspect  of  affairs  was  also  now  tending  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  Establishment.  Since  the  eccle- 
siastical and  civil  institutions  of  the  mother-country  were 
regarded  as  inseparable,  in  losing  affection  for  the  king, 
men  lost  affection  for  the  church.  "  No  king,  no  bishop!" 
seemed  to  them  to  be  the  consistent  cry.  When,  then,  the 
clergy  of  New  York,  in  1771,  sought  their  cooperation  in 
their  efforts  to  obtain  the  presence  of  a  bishop  in  America, 


46  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

they  failed.  But  few  of  the  Virginia  clergy  could  be  in- 
duced to  come  together  to  consider  the  question.  Not 
more  than  twelve  appeared  in  council.  After  at  first  re- 
jecting the  proposal,  they  finally  voted  to  address  the  king, 
asking  for  the  appointment  of  a  bishop  in  America.  Soon 
after,  four  of  them  entered  a  formal  protest,  asserting  that 
the  establishment  of  an  American  episcopate  would  weaken 
the  connection  between  the  mother-country  and  the  colo- 
nies, and  might  occasion  such  disturbances  as  would  en- 
danger the  existence  of  the  British  empire  in  America. 
For  this  protest  these  clergymen  received  the  thanks  of 
the  House  of  Burgesses,  although  many  of  the  members  of 
this  House  were  members  of  the  Established  Church.  The 
Rev^  Jonathan  Boucher  and  others  denounced  in  severe 
terms  the  protest  of  the  four  clergymen  and  the  approval 
of  it  by  the  House  of  Burgesses.  Thus  at  the  dawn  of 
the  Revolution  the  church  was  in  a  most  lamentable  con- 
dition.     Without  were  fightings  and  within  were  fears. 

At  the  beginning  of  hostilities,  perhaps  two  thirds  of  the 
clergy  and  a  portion  of  the  laity  were  loyalists.  Many 
distinguished  clergymen,  however,  such  as  Jarratt  and 
Madison,  afterward  Bishop  of  Virginia,  also  Messrs.  Griffith, 
Davis,  Bracken,  Belmaine,  and  Buchanan,  were  earnest 
patriots.  Some  clergymen  entered  the  ranks  of  the  army 
and  became  distinguished  officers,  such  as  Muhlenberg  and 
Thruston.  Many  of  the  laity,  with  Washington  at  their 
head,  and  including  Patrick  Henry,  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
the  mover  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  his  brother, 
Francis  Lightfoot  Lee,  one  of  the  signers,  George  Mason, 
Edmund  Pendleton,  with  the  families  of  the  Nelsons,  the 
Meades,  the  Mercers,  the  Harrisons  and  Randolphs,  and 
many  others,  were  strong  and  influential  patriots. 

\\\  the  autumn  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence  a 
contest  arose  for  the  destruction  of  the  temporal  possessions 


EFFECT  OF   THE  REVOLUTIONARY   WAR.  47 

of  the  church  in  Virginia.  Petitions  poured  into  the  State 
convention  from  the  various  religious  sects  of  Virginia,  as 
well  as  from  the  irreligious,  praying  for  the  abolition  of 
church  establishments.  The  members  of  the  church  and 
the  Methodists  alike  joined  in  the  counter-petition,  but  from 
this  time  all  laws  were  repealed  which  declared  the  church 
to  be  the  dominant  teacher  in  the  colony.  All  dissenters, 
also,  were  exempt  from  contributing  to  the  support  of  the 
church.  The  glebes  and  the  churches  and  chapels  already 
built  were  retained  for  their  congregations  ;  but  ultimately, 
after  the  Revolution,  the  legislature  decreed  that  all  glebe- 
lands  in  Virginia  should  be  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the 
public. 

During  the  war  the  sufferings  of  the  loyalist  clergy 
were,  of  course,  many  and  grievous.  The  prohibition  to 
pray  for  the  king  was  enforced  upon  them,  some  yielding 
and  sorne  refusing  to  yield.  Political  animosity  and  eccle- 
siastical hatred  alike  marked  them  out  for  victims.  The 
church  itself  became  desolated.  Whereas  at  the  begin-! 
ning  of  the  war  Virginia  contained  ninety-five  parishes,  al 
hundred  and  sixty-four  churches  and  chapels,  and  ninety-' 
one  clergymen,  at  its  conclusion  twenty-three  parishes  were 
entirely  extinguished,  and  of  those  remaining  thirty-four 
were  withou-t  any  clerical  ministration.  Only  twenty-eight 
of  the  clergy  survived ;  and  of  these  not  more  than  fifteen 
had  been  able  to  remain  steadfast  at  their  posts.  The 
churches  and  chapels  in  almost  every  parish  had  fallen 
into  ruin.  They  had  during  the  war  often  been  used  as 
barracks  or  stables.  The  service-books  and  the  commun- 
ion-plate disappeared,  and  fonts  were  used  for  watering- 
troughs.  When  the  war  was  ended,  sorely  smitten  by 
poverty,  and  burdened  with  the  prejudices  excited  by  its 
connection  with  England,  the  church  had  to  set  to  work  to 
repair  its  property  and  reestablish  its  spiritual  rule.      Pri- 


48  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

vate  enterprise  without  some  legal  assistance  seemed 
wholly  inadequate  to  the  purpose.  Accordingly,  in  i  784, 
a  number  of  petitions  were  presented  to  the  legislature, 
praying  that,  "  as  all  persons  enjoy  the  benefit  of  religion, 
all  might  be  required  to  contribute  to  the  expense  of  sup- 
porting some  form  of  worship  or  other."  The  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  as  the  former  Church  of  England  now 
called  itself,  set  forth  that  their  church  labored  under  many 
inconveniences  and  restraints  by  the  operation  of  sundry 
laws  in  force,  and  prayed  that  all  acts  which  directed  modes 
of  faith  and  worship  mi^it  be  repealed  ;  that  the  \-estry  laws 
might  be  amended ;  that  the  churches,  glebe-lands,  dona- 
tions, and  all  other  property  heretofore  belonging  to  the 
Established  Church  might  be  forever  secured  to  them  by 
law ;  and,  above  all,  that  an  act  might  be  passed  to  incor- 
porate the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia,  and  to 
enable  its  members  to  regulate  all  their  spiritual  concerns, 
and  constitute  such  canons  for  their  government  and  good 
order  as  were  suited  to  their  religious  principles.  There 
were  petitions  of  an  opposite  character,  which  prayed  that 
no  step  might  be  taken  in  aid  of  religion,  but  that  it  might 
be  left  to  its  own  superior  and  successful  influence.  The 
united  clergy  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  protested  against 
incorporating  religious  societies.  A  resolution,  however, 
was  passed,  by  a  majority  of  nearly  one  third  of  the 
House,  that  acts  ought  to  pass  for  the  incorporation  of  all 
societies  of  the  Christian  religion  which  might  ajjply  for 
the  same. 

Patrick  Henry  was  a  strong  advocate  of  this  measure, 
and  was  charged,  by  reason  of  it,  with  advocating  the 
reestablishment  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  The 
same  day  on  which  this  resolution  was  adopted  leave  was 
given  to  introduce  a  bill  for  the  incorporation  of  the  clergy 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.     Mr.  Henry  was  one 


INCORPORATION  OF   THE    CHURCH.  49 

of  the  committee  appointed  to  bring  in  the  bill.  The  bill 
provided  that  the  minister  and  vestry  of  each  parish  should 
be  a  body  corporate,  allowed  to  acquire  and  use  property, 
provided  the  income  did  not  exceed  eight  hundred  pounds 
per  annum.  They  had  power  to  make  their  own  regula- 
tions for  the  management  of  their  temporal  concerns ;  and 
the 'vestry  had  the  ordering  of  the  payment  of  all  moneys 
of  the  church.  If  in  any  parish  tliere  were  no  minister  or 
vestrymen  left,  any  two  members  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  were  authorized  to  call  together  all  Episco- 
palians resident  within  that  parish,  who  could  elect,  by  a 
majority  of  votes,  twelve  discreet  men,  members  of  the 
church,  who,  when  elected,  should  constitute  a  vestry. 
Vestrymen,  when  elected,  before  entering  on  their  duties, 
were  required  to  subscribe  a  declaration  to  conform  to  the 
doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church.  They  then  appointed  from  their  own  number 
two  churchwardens,  and  could  supply  any  vacancies  oc- 
curring among  themselves  until  the  succeeding  triennial 
election.  All  former  laws  made  for  the  government  of  the 
church  or  clergy  during  the  colonial  existence  of  the  State 
were  repealed,  and  the  church  was  authorized  to  regulate 
all  her  religious  concerns  and  make  such  rules  as  she  saw 
fit  for  orderly  and  good  government.  The  Convention  was 
to  be  composed  of  all  ministers  of  the  church  ex  officio  and 
of  two  laymen  from  each  parish,  to  be  chosen  by  their  re- 
spective vestries.  Forty  persons  were  necessary  to  consti- 
tute a  Convention  ;  and  it  was  provided  that  no  law  should 
be  made  whereby  clergymen  might  be  received  into  or  re- 
moved from  a  cure  contrary  to  the  consent  of  a  majority 
of  the  vestry.  The  jealousy  of  the  clergy  manifest  in  these 
regulations  was  a  heritage  of  the  sad  experience  of  the  past. 
No  complaint  was  made  by  the  clergy  against  these  pro- 
visions.    The  passage  of  the  resolution  was  hailed  with 


50  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

thankfulness,  and  a  better  day  seemed  about  to  dawn  upon 
the  temporal  interests  of  the  church. 

About  this  time  the  church  received  a  blow  from  the  final 
separation  of  the.  Methodists  from  it.  Mr.  Wesley,  owing 
to  the  representations  made  to  him  of  the  great  destitution 
of  religious  services  among  the  colonists,  proceeded,  after 
much  hesitation  and  with  some  misgivings,  to  ordain 
presbyters  for  America,  and  to  set  apart  Dr.  Coke  as 
superintendent.  He  gave  the  following  reasons  for  his 
action :  "  For  many  years  I  have  been  importuned  to  ex- 
ercise the  right  of  ordaining  part  of  our  traveling  preach- 
ers ;  but  I  have  still  refused,  because  I  was  determined 
as  little  as  possible  to  violate  the  established  order  of 
the  national  church  to  which  I  belong.  But  the  case  is 
widely  different  between  England  and  North  America. 
Here  there  are  many  bishops  who  have  a  legal  jurisdiction. 
In  America  there  are  none,  neither  any  parish  minister;  so 
that  for  some  hundred  miles  together  there  is  none  either 
to  baptize  or  administer  the  Lord's  Supper.  Here,  there- 
fore, my  scruples  are  at  end,  and  I  conceive  myself  at  full 
liberty,  as  I  violate  no  order  and  invade  no  man's  right  by 
appointing  and  sending  laborers  into  the  harvest.  If  any 
one  will  point  out  a  more  rational  and  Scriptural  way  of 
feeding  and  guiding  these  poor  sheep  in  the  wilderness,  I 
will  gladly  embrace  it.  At  present  I  cannot  see  any  better 
method  than  that  I  have  taken."  In  consequence  of  this 
action  of  Mr.  Wesley  the  Methodists  throughout  the 
country  became  an  organized,  independent  ecclesiastical 
body,  and  were  not  in  any  way  identified  with  the  Epis- 
copal Church.  Moreover,  in  the  very  year  in  which  the 
Episcopal  Church  was  incorporated,  a  memorial  was  pre- 
sented to  the  legislature  by  the  Presbyterians,  complaining 
of  the  special  privileges  which  the  church  was  said  to 
obtain  by  its  act  of  incorporation. 


FIRST  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CONVENTION.        5  I 

The  Baptists  also  joined  in  opposing  it;  and  by  the  ad- 
vocacy of  Mr.  Jefferson  an  act  was  passed,  by  the  legislature 
of  I  785,  entitled  "  An  Act  for  establishing  Religious  Free- 
dom." This  act  decrees  that  no  man  shall  be  compelled  to 
frequent  or  support  any  religious  worship,  place,  or  minis- 
try whatsoever,  nor  shall  be  enforced,  restrained,  molested, 
or  burdened  in  his  body  or  goods,  nor  shall  otherwise  suffer 
on  account  of  his  religious  opinions  or  belief,  but  that  all 
men  shall  be  free  to  profess,  and  by  argument  maintain, 
their  opinions  in  matters  of  religion,  and  that  the  same 
shall  in  no  wise  diminish,  enlarge,  or  affect  their  civil 
capacities. 

Such  was  the  state  of  opinion  and  the  condition  of 
affairs  when  the  first  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  of  Virginia  was  held  after  the  Revolution.  On 
the  i8th  of  May,  1785,  thirty-six  clergymen  and  seventy- 
one  laymen  assembled  in  the  city  of  Richmond,  and  were 
organized  by  the  appointment  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Madison, 
president  of  William  and  Mary  College,  as  presiding  officer. 
The  Rev.  Robert  Andrews  was  made  secretary.  The  first 
resolution  adopted  by  the  House,  sitting  as  a  committee  of 
the  whole,  on  the  state  of  the  church  was  "  that  an  address 
be  prepared  to  the  members  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  Virginia,  representing  the  condition  of  the 
church,  and  exhorting  them  to  unite  in  its  support."  In 
this  document  it  is  stated  that  since  the  year  1776  the 
church  had  been  without  regular  government ;  that  her 
ministers  had  received  but  little  compensation  for  their 
services,  and  that  their  numbers  had  been  diminished  by 
death  and  other  causes,  and  that  as  yet  there  was  no  re- 
course in  themselves  for  a  succession  of  ministers ;  that 
their  churches  stood  in  need  of  repair,  and  that  there  was 
no  fund  to  accomplish  it.  Voluntary  subscriptions  by  the 
several  vestries  were  recommended  to  furnish  a  competent 


52  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

support  for  the  incumbents  of  their  respective  parishes. 
The  chief  evil  recognized  by  the  Convention  was  want  of 
proper  autliority  competent  to  achninister  discipHne  to  the 
clergy.  A  standing  committee,  composed  of  clergy  and 
laity,  was  instructed  to  consider  the  proper  steps  to  ob- 
tain the  consecration  of  a  bishop,  and  to  provide  means 
for  his  support.  Until  the  meeting  of  the  next  Con\'ention 
rules  were  adopted  for  the  order,  government,  and  discipline 
of  the  church.  The  country  was  divided  into  districts,  and 
a  clergyman  of  each  district  was  appointed  as  visitor  to 
effect  such  discipline  as  was  possible.  Pluralities  and  acts 
of  restraint  were  strictly  prohibited  ;  the  use  of  the  surplice 
and  gown,  preaching  once  at  least  on  every  Lord's  day, 
catechising  children,  administering  the  eucharist  at  stated 
periods,  and  visiting  the  sick,  were  positively  enjoined. 
It  was  resolved  also  that,  for  the  present,  the  liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England  should  be  used,  with  such  alterations 
only  as  had  been  rendered  necessary  by  the  American 
Revolution.  The  attention  of  the  Convention  was  also 
called  to  a  communication  sent  to  it  from  the  governor  of 
Virginia,  which  had  been  communicated  to  the  governor 
by  our  minister  (John  Adams)  at  the  court  of  St.  James, 
concerning  the  willingness  of  the  church  in  Denmark  to 
administer  episcopal  ordination  to  the  American  candi- 
dates for  orders.  The  church  declined  to  take  any  steps 
founded  on  this  communication.  The  prevalent  feeling  was 
that  the  consecration  of  American  bishops  and  the  obtain- 
ing of  holy  orders  for  presbyters  were  not  to  be  sought  out 
of  England  until  all  prospect  of  obtaining  them  there  should 
seem  hopeless. 

Steps  had  already  been  taken  by  clergymen  of  the  States 
of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  assembled  by 
appointment  in  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  May  13,  1784,  for 
the  general  organization  of  the  church  in  the  United  States. 


DEPUTIES  APPOINTED.  53 

At  a  meeting  held  on  the  6th  of  the  succeeding  October, 
in  New  York,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Griffith  attended  as  a  delegate 
from  Virginia.  This  purely  voluntary  assemblage  proposed 
certain  principles  of  ecclesiastical  union,  to  be  submitted 
to  the  churches  of  the  several  States.  The  Virginia  Con- 
vention, after  expressing  a  willingness  to  unite  in  the 
changed  ecclesiastical  constitution  with  the  members  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  other  States  of 
America,  accepted  with  some  criticism  the  articles  pro- 
posed as  the  basis  of  union.  They  elected  deputies  to 
the  proposed  Convention  in  Philadelphia,  and  gave  them 
general  instructions  as  to  the  course  they  were  to  follow. 
These  deputies  were  the  Rev.  Dr.  Griffith,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mc- 
Croskey,  with  John  Page  and  William  Lee,  Esquires,  lay- 
men. Their  instructions  urged  the  deputies  to  liberality 
and  moderation  in  procuring  uniformity  in  doctrine  and 
worship,  advocated  simplicity  of  creed,  and  desired  only  the 
retention  of  the  Apostles'  Creed.  They  deprecated  any 
but  the  most  cautious  changes  in  the  liturgy,  and  desired 
that  utility  might  be  the  test  of  such  ceremonies  as  might 
be  retained.  After  instructing  the  deputies  to  communi- 
cate to  the  General  Convention  the  proposition  concerning 
Danish  ordination,  a  standing  committee  was  appointed, 
to  which  was  confided  the  power  of  calling  a  Convention. 
The  impulse  given  to  the  church  under  this  new  organi- 
zation seems  to  have  roused  still  further  the  animosity  of  its 
opponents.  The  Presbyterians  and  Baptists  now  circulated 
memorials  to  the  legislature,  asking  not  merely  for  a  repeal 
of  the  law  incorporating  the  church,  but  also  that  the 
property  of  the  church  might  be  disposed  of  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  public.  At  the  next  Convention  of  the  church, 
in  May,  i  786,  a  petition  to  the  legislature  was  prepared, 
to  counteract  the  effect  of  the  hostile  memorials  of  the 
Baptists  and  Presbyterians ;   but  it  was  of  no  avail.      In 


54  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ii. 

January,  1787,  the  act  for  incorporating  the  Episcopal 
Church  was  repealed.  In  May,  1787,  the  third  Conven- 
tion of  the  church  assembled,  but  not,  as  before,  under  an 
act  of  incorporation.  It  was  held  that  the  effect  of  the 
repeal  of  that  act  returned  the  powers  of  the  government 
and  discipline  of  the  church  to  the  members  at  large.  The 
members  of  the  church  in  the  several  parishes  had,  there- 
fore, been  invited  to  elect  two  deputies  from  each  parish, 
with  full  powers  to  form  and  establish  such  regulations  for 
government,  discipline,  and  worship  as  they  might  deem 
best ;  and  to  provide  means  for  the  care  and  proper  use  of 
such  property  as  remained  to  the  church.  The  diminished 
number  of  those  who  thus  came  together  showed  that  the 
church  had  become  disheartened  by  the  persevering  hostil- 
ity of  its  opponents,  and  that  many  looked  upon  a  further 
contest  as  hopeless.  Its  enemies  had  not  as  yet  succeeded 
in  procuring  a  distribution  of  its  property.  They  left  it  in 
the  condition  in  which  it  stood  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, with  this  change,  however :  that,  having  now  assumed 
an  organized  form,  it  could  better  distinguish  between  its 
friends  and  its  foes. 

Previous  to  this  time  the  Convention  of  the  church  which 
was  held  in  Richmond  May  24,  1 786,  had  received  the 
report  of  the  representatives  to  the  General  Convention, 
and  a  journal  of  the  proceedings  of  that  body  was  also 
presented.  The  proposed  constitution  of  the  church  met 
with  a  ready  adoption.  Objections  were  raised  to  the 
Proposed  Book  and  its  obligatory  use,  but  the  Prayer- 
book  finally  adopted  was  received,  and  the  Virginia  church 
came  into  union  with  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States.  As  the  General  Convention  had 
recommended  the  election  of  a  suitable  person  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  English  prelates  for  consecration  as  Bishop  of 
Virginia,  such  an  election  was  held  ;  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Grif- 


DR.  GRIFFITH  ELECTED  BISHOP.  55 

fith  was  chosen  by  a  large  majority.  He  was  never  conse- 
crated, because,  by  reason  of  his  own  poverty  and  that  of 
his  church,  means  were  not  forthcoming  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  a  journey  to  England.  He  was  a  man  of  high 
character,  and  would  have  nobly  filled  the  position  to  which 
he  was  thus  called. 

Two  deputies  were  appointed  to  attend  the  next  Gen- 
eral Convention.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Griffith  was  one  of  them. 
Until  episcopal  supervision  could  be  had,  the  State  was 
divided  by  this  Convention  into  twenty-four  districts,  and 
a  visitor  was  appointed  for  each  of  them.  The  powers  of 
the  standing  committee  were  defined,  and  during  the  re- 
cess of  Conventions  it  was  to  take  care  generally  of  the 
interests  of  the  church. 

On  the  20th  of  June,  i  786,  the  delegates  from  Virginia, 
Dr.  Griffith  and  the  Hon.  Cyrus  Griffin,  appeared  in  Phil- 
adelphia in  the  General  Convention ;  and  Dr.  Griffith  was 
made  its  president.  With  this  act  we  may  fitly  terminate 
the  history  of  the  church  of  Virginia  as  an  independent 
organization. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    COLONIAL    CHURCH    IN    MARYLAND. 

The  fortunes  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Maryland 
were  not  unlike  those  which  befell  the  church  in  Virginia. 
The  social  characteristics  of  the  two  colonies  were  simi- 
lar. The  soil  and  climate  were  alike.  Tobacco  was  the 
chief  agricultural  product  of  both,  and  its  culture  influenced 
to  a  marked  degree  the  social  habits  of  the  community, 
while  its  fluctuations  in  value  constituted  the  chief  influ- 
ence on  their  fortunes.  In  consequence  of  this  absorbing 
interest  in  one  product  of  the  soil,  commerce  was  depressed, 
and  plantations  took  the  place  of  towns,  causing  the  popu- 
lation to  be  scattered,  and  strongly  influencing  the  man- 
ners of  the  people  and  their  modes  of  life.  As  in  Virginia, 
slavery  flourished,  and  convicts  were  imported  for  laborers, 
who,  on  the  termination  of  their  sentences,  were  apt  to 
become  an  idle  and  dangerous  element  in  the  community. 
There  was  a  distinct  aristocratic  class,  though  the  distinc- 
tion between  planters  and  small  farmers  was  not  so  marked 
as  in  the  neighboring  colony.  There  were  more  varieties 
of  religious  association,  however.  This,  in  the  beginning, 
arose  in  great  measure  from  the  proprietary  rule,  which  was 
a  marked  distinction  of  the  colony. 

George  Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore,  who  in  1623  had  ac- 
quired a  palatinate  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Newfound- 
land, finding  that  climate  too  severe  for  a  colony,  embarked 

56 


LORD  BALTIMORE,  PROPRIETARY.  t^'j 

for  Virginia.  Having,  however,  become  a  Roman  Catholic 
in  1625,  he  declined  to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy,  and 
returned  to  England.  Here  he  obtained  a  territory  after- 
ward named  Maryland,  in  honor  of  Queen  Henrietta 
Maria ;  but  dying  before  the  charter  passed  the  seal,  the 
grant  was  made  to  his  son,  Cecilius  Calvert,  second  Lord 
Baltimore,  in  1632.  The  charter,  which  was  modeled  on 
that  of  Avalon  in  Newfoundland,  while  Calvert  was  still  a 
Protestant,  made  Lord  Baltimore  and  his  heirs  proprietaries 
of  the  territory,  which  was  to  be  a  palatinate  (like  that  of 
Durham  in  England),  so  that  his  prerogatives  were  almost 
regal.  There  was  a  formal  and  nominal  acknowledgment 
of  the  fief  in  the  annual  payment  of  two  Indian  arrows  and 
a  fifth  of  all  gold  and  silver  which  might  be  discovered ; 
but  the  proprietary  was  to  own  the  land,  levy  taxes,  consti- 
tute courts,  confer  titles,  and  exercise,  under  a  lax  system 
of  feudation,  sovereign  powers,  both  civil  and  military. 
In  regard  to  religion  the  charter  gave  the  proprietary  the 
patronage  and  advowsons  of  churches,  and  empowered  him 
to  erect  churches,  chapels,  and  oratories,  which  he  might 
cause  to  be  consecrated  according  to  the  ecclesiastical  laws 
of  England.  He  was  not,  however,  prevented  from  exer- 
cising full  toleration  to  all  religious  bodies,  and  it  was 
understood  that  Roman  Catholics  were  not  to  be  molested 
in  the  use  of  their  customary  rites  of  worship.  Of  course 
any  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  Roman  Catholic  holding  his 
patent  from  the  crown  of  England  to  proscribe  Protestants 
would  have  endangered  and  doubtless  destroyed  the  col- 
ony ;  and  the  system  of  toleration  which  he  adopted  may 
have  been  defensive  of  himself  and  his  co-religionists. 

Though  politic,  Cahert  was  of  a  lenient  disposition,  as 
his  father  had  been  before  him.  While  he  aimed  to  pro- 
vide a  safe  asylum  for  adherents  of  his  own  creed,  he  was 
mainly  concerned  to  build  up  a  lucrative  and  flourishing 


58  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  hi. 

colony,  whatever  might  be  the  creed  of  its  inhabitants. 
From  the  beginning  a  majority  of  the  settlers  were 
Protestants,  and  their  proportion  in  the  colony  constantly 
increased.  Already,  before  the  founding  of  St.  Mary's  by 
the  Pilgrims  of  Maryland,  Virginia  churchmen  were  living 
on  the  Isle  of  Kent,  opposite  the  present  site  of  Annapolis, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Chester  River,  and  had  the  ministra- 
tions of  a  clergyman,  though  there  was  no  church.  Clay- 
bourne  of  Virginia,  who  had  planted  the  settlement  as  a 
depot  for  fur- traders,  and  who  professed  to  be  a  Protestant, 
but  who,  it  has  been  said,  "  could  be  a  churchman,  Puritan, 
Cavalier,  or  Roundhead  with  equal  ease  and  equal  sincer- 
ity," disputed  the  rights  of  Calvert's  company,  when 
it  came,  to  its  possession.  He  was,  however,  finally  dis- 
possessed. 

Cecilius  Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore,  never  visited  the  ter- 
ritory of  which  he  had  obtained  the  patent ;  but  Leonard 
Calvert,  his  brother,  came  as  his  representative  early  in 
1634,  with  about  twenty  gentlemen  and  two  or  three  hun- 
dred laborers,  accompanied  by  two  Jesuit  priests.  They 
founded  the  town  of  St.  Mary's,  on  the  site  of  an  Indian 
town  on  the  Chesapeake,  which  they  purchased  from  the 
friendly  inhabitants,  who  were  about  to  emigrate  from  it. 
Here  the  Protestant  members  of  the  community  erected  a 
chapel,  and  held  religious  services  according  to  the  usage 
of  the  Church  of  England  as  well  as  they  could  without 
a  clergyman.  The  Puritan  exiles  from  Virginia  were  en- 
couraged to  plant  themselves  on  the  banks  of  the  Severn, 
and  even  those  of  Massachusetts  were  approached  with 
friendly  invitation.  For  Lord  Baltimore,  though  remaining 
in  England,  prescribed  from  1636  onward  for  his  governors 
the  following  oath :  "  I  will  not  by  myself  or  any  other, 
directly  or  indirectly,  trouble,  molest,  or  discountenance 
any  person  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  for  or  in 


ACT  OF  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM,  1649.  59 

respect  of  religion :  I  will  make  no  difference  of  persons  in 
conferring  offices,  favors,  or  rewards,  for  or  in' respect  of 
religion  ;  but  merely  as  they  shall  be  found  faithful  and  well 
deserving,  and  endued  with  moral  virtues  and  abilities  :  my 
aim  shall  be  public  unity,  and  if  any  person  or  officer  shall 
molest  any  person  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  on 
account  of  his  religion,  I  will  protect  the  person  molested, 
and  punish  the  offender." 

Such  an  anticipation  of  freedom  of  conscience  and  civil- 
service  reform  reflects  the  highest  credit  on  both  the  heart 
and  intelligence  of  Calvert.  He  had  not  learned  it  from 
the  English  Church,  which  his  father  had  left ;  nor  from 
the  Roman  Church,  which  he  had  joined ;  nor  from  the 
Puritans  of  Massachusetts,  who  deemed  it  as  "  a  doctrine 
of  devils."  It  was  the  outcome  of  his  own  convictions  and 
kindly  nature,  and  placed  him  distinctly  among  the  benefac- 
tors of  mankind.  In  1648  Leonard  Calvert,  after  the  death 
of  his  brother  Cecilius,  gave  a  commission  as  governor  to 
William  Storer,  a  Protestant,  subject  to  the  condition  of  the 
oath  that  "  none  who  accepted  the  fundamental  doctrines 
of  Christianity  should  be  molested  on  account  of  their 
religion."  A  special  oath  was,  moreover,  required  that 
Roman  Catholics  should  be  protected  against  interference 
with  their  belief  and  worship.  Then,  in  1649,  the  notable 
Act  of  Religious  Freedom  was  passed  by  the  Assembly, 
by  which  liberty  of  conscience  in  matters  of  religion  was 
guaranteed  by  the  governing  body  to  all  Christians,  with 
the  exception  of  disbelievers  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 
This  act  of  the  Maryland  legislature  declared  "  that  the 
enforcement  of  the  conscience  had  been  of  dangerous  con- 
sequence in  those  countries  wherein  it  had  been  practiced, 
and  therefore  that  no  persons  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus 
Christ  should  be  molested  in  respect  of  their  religion,  or  in 
the  free  exercise  thereof,  or  be  compelled  to  the  belief  or 


6o  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  hi. 

exercise  of  any  other  religion  against  their  consent ;  so  that 
they  be  not  unfaithful  to  the  proprietary,  or  conspire  against 
the  civil  government ;  that  persons  molesting  any  other  in 
respect  of  his  religious  tenets  should  pay  treble  damages 
to  the  party  aggrieved,  and  twenty  shillings  to  the  pro- 
prietary ;  that  those  reproaching  any  with  opprobrious 
names  of  religious  distinction  should  forfeit  ten  shillings  to 
the  persons  injured;  that  any  one  speaking  reproachfully 
against  the  Blessed  Virgin  or  the  apostles  should  forfeit  five 
pounds ;  but  blasphemy  against  God  should  be  punished 
with  death."  By  this  action  of  the  Maryland  government, 
the  direct  outcome  of  the  spirit  of  its  founder,  "  relig- 
ious liberty,"  to  use  the  language  of  Mr.  Bancroft,  "  ob- 
tained its  only  home  in  the  wide  world."  Let  no  one 
withhold  the  meed  of  grateful  admiration  because  the  real 
author  was  a  member  of  the  Roman  branch  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  He  was  in  advance  of  that  church  and  all  others. 
His  praise  should  be  in  all  the  churches  which  enjoy  the 
heritage  of  liberty  and  peace. 

The  first  enactment  against  religious  liberty  in  Maryland 
came  from  men  who  had  fled  there  from  persecution,  and 
was  aimed  at  those  who  had  afforded  them  an  asylum.  It 
occurred  in  1654,  during  the  period  of  the  Commonwealth 
in  England.  Under  the  instigation  of  Clayborne,  who  had 
disputed  the  right  of  Maryland  to  the  Isle  of  Kent,  Storer, 
the  Protestant  governor  appointed  by  Calvert,  was  deposed, 
and  the  regulation  of  affairs  was  handed  over  to  a  Puritan 
Council  of  Six,  with  Captain  Fuller  as  their  leader.  These 
at  once  withdrew  the  legal  protection  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics. The  legislature  convened  by  them  passed  "  An  Act 
Concerning  Religion,"  which  declared  that  "  none  who 
professed  and  exercised  the  popish  (commonly  called  the 
Roman  Catholic)  religion  could  be  protected  in  this  prov- 
ince, etc.,  but  to  be  restrained  from  the  exercise  thereof. 


FIRST  MENTION  OF  ENGLISH  CHURCH,  1676.        6 1 

That  such  as  profess  faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ,  though 
differing  in  judgment  from  the  doctrine,  worship,  or  dis- 
cipHne  pubhcly  held  forth,  should  not  be  restrained  from, 
but  protected  in  the  profession  of  the  faith  and  exercise  of  > 
their  religion,  etc.,  provided  such  liberty  was  //ot  extcndedX 
to  popery  or  prelacy.'"  This  state  of  affairs,  however,  was 
reversed,  and  legal  protection  was  again  accorded  to 
Roman  Catholics  at  the  Restoration,  by  Philip  Calvert, 
whom  Charles  II.  appointed  governor  after  he  had  as- 
cended the  throne.  Henceforth  all  political  affairs  re- 
mained tranquil  in  the  colony  until  the  English  Revolution 
of  1688,  when  the  proprietary  rule  was  finally  abolished. 

During  all  this  period  there  is  little  orno  mention  of  the 
English  Church.  It  first  emerged  into  notice  in  1676,  in 
a  letter  written  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  by  a 
Rev.  Mr.  Yeo,  of  Patuxet,  in  which  he  declared  that  "  the 
province  of  Maryland  is  in  a  deplorable  condition  for  want 
of  an  established  ministry.  Here  are  ten  or  twelve  counties,, 
and  in  them  at  least  twenty  thousand  souls,  and  but  thred 
Protestant  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  priests 
are  provided  for,  and  the  Quakers  take  care  of  those  that 
are  speakers;  but  no  care  is  taken  to  build  up  churches  in 
the  Protestant  religion.  The  Lord's  day  is  profaned  ;  re- 
ligion is  despised;  and  all  notorious  vices  are  committed." 
Mr.  Yeo  proceeds  "  to  beg  that  your  lordship  would  be 
pleased  to  solicit  him  [Lord  Baltimore]  for  some  estab- 
lished support  of  a  Protestant  ministry."  No  law  for  the 
support  of  the  Protestant  clergy  was  passed  by  reason  of 
this  letter,  for  Lord  Baltimore,  when  appealed  to,  showed 
the  Act  of  1649,  which  allowed  equal  privilege  to  all  Chris- 
tian bodies  alike,  and  also  informed  the  committee  who 
waited  upon  him  that  the  four  ministers  of  the  Church  of 
England  then  in  the  province  were  in  possession  of  planta- 
tions which  afforded  them  a  decent  support.      From  this 


62  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  hi. 

time  on  there  was  a  growth  of  hostihty  to  the  Church  of 
Rome. 

The  number  of  clergymen  of  the  English  Church  grew 
apace ;  but  they  were  of  a  quality  which  made  them  mal- 
contents in  politics  and  pernicious  to  the  church.  Such 
a  one  was  John  Wood,  who,  beginning  as  a  politician  and 
ending  as  a  parson,  was  a  fomenter  of  strifes  and  a  receiver 
of  spoils.  He  was  not  only  immoral,  but  also  an  unbe- 
liever; lectured  on  "  The  Absurdities  of  Christianity,"  and 
challenged  Governor  Nicholson  to  fight  a  duel  because  the 
governor  had  caned  him  for  being  drunk  while  conducting 
service  on  a  Sunday.  He  was  a  violent  instance  of  a  com- 
plaint only  too  general  in  Maryland  and  other  Southern 
colonies  up  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  The  "  no 
popery  "  cry  was  now  rife  in  England  by  reason  of  the  im- 
posture of  Titus  Gates ;  and  a  lax  and  lawless  clergy  and 
their  followers  could  easily  excite  apprehension  in  the  gov- 
ernment at  home.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  under  Charles  H. 
that  Lord  Baltimore  was  ordered  "  to  put  all  the  offices 
into  the  hands  of  the  Protestants."  James  H.,  though  of 
the  same  religion  as  Baltimore,  looked  upon  the  chartered 
liberties  of  the  colonies  with  more  aversion  than  Charles, 
and,  being  instigated  by  Father  Petre,  a  Jesuit  whose 
order  Baltimore  had  offended,  issued  in  1687  the  writ  of 
quo  zvarranto.  Its  execution  was  only  prevented  by  the 
flight  of  the  monarch  from  his  kingdom.  When  the  news 
of  the  revolution  reached  Maryland,  it  became  ablaze 
with  insurrection,  which  resulted  in  what  is  called  the 
"Protestant  Revolution."  The  loss  of  all  records  from 
1688  to  1692  makes  it  impossibfe  to  trace  the  steps  by 
which  the  result  was  accomplished ;  but  while  in  the 
former  year  the  people  dwelt  quietly  and  happily  under 
the  government  of  the  proprietary,  in  the  latter  year  that 


ENGLISH   CHURCH  ESTABLISHED  IN  MARYLAND.    63 

government  was  at  an  end  and  the  colony  was  ruled  by  the 
officers  of  the  crown. 

No  serious  opposition  seems  to  have  been  made  to  this 
change.  It  is  recorded  that  at  this  time  "  there  were  thirty 
Protestants  to  one  papist  in  the  province."  ^  Resistance  may 
have  seemed  hopeless,  and  the  Roman  Catholics  themselves 
may  have  well  feared  the  political  policy,  which,  while  it 
favored  their  religion,  aimed  a  blow  at  their  colonial  rights. 
King  William,  mindful  of  Lord  Baltimore's  opposition  to 
his  accession,  sanctioned  the  revolution  which  displaced 
him,  and  established  for  Maryland  a  royal  government, 
with  Sir  Lionel  Copley  at  its  head.  He  arrived  early  in 
1692,  and  the  new  order  of  things  was  ushered  in  by 
which  the  Church  of  England  became  in  law  the  established 
church  of  Maryland. 

Thus,  not  by  the  colonists,  but  by  the  crown,  Protestant 
ascendency  came  in.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Assembly 
convened  by  Copley  was  "  An  Act  for  the  Service  of 
Almighty  God  and  the  Establishment  of  the  Protestant 
Religion."  The  counties  were  laid  out  in  parishes.  A 
tax  of  forty  pounds  of  tobacco  per  poll  was  laid  for  the 
benefit  of  the  church,  in  the  support  of  a  ministry  and  the 
building  and  repairing  of  churches.  The  vestries  were 
made  bodies  corporate  to  hold  property,  and  were  given 
power  to  fill  all  vacancies.  For  the  thirty-one  parishes 
into  which  the  ten  counties  were  divided  there  seem  to 
have  been  but  three  ministers.  Encouragement  was  there- 
fore held  out  to  induce  clergymen  to  emigrate,  and  it  would 
appear  that  a  motley  company  of  damaged  reputations 
responded  to  the  call.  The  population  now  numbered 
twenty-five  thousand.  It  was  much  scattered,  and  the 
parishes  were  large  in  extent,  being  sometimes  from 
1  Chalmers,  "  Annals,"  p.  376,  note  24. 


64  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  hi. 

twenty  to  thirty  miles  in  length ;  so  that  attendance  on 
public  worship  was  difficult,  and  parochial  visiting,  even  to 
a  faithful  pastor,  infrequent  and  almost  impossible.  Legal 
recognition  or  quasi-Establishment  could  do  little  for  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  a  people  under  such  conditions  as  these. 
When  Sir  Francis  Nicholson  came  in  place  of  Copley  as 
governor,  which  he  did  in  1694,  the  church  received  a 
new  impulse  from  his  energy  and  generosity.  He  could 
not,  however,  deepen  its  spiritual  character.  Active  and 
arbitrary,  a  devoted  supporter  of  the  power  of  church  and 
state,  he  ruled  with  diligence,  but  not  always  with  wisdom. 
He  could  make  himself  popular  with  the  people  by  his 
manner,  and  yet  act  tyrannically  when  his  passions  were 
excited.  With  his  ardent  temperament  he  threw  himself 
into  the  cause  of  the  church.  He  wrote  in  her  behalf  to 
arouse  the  interest  of  others,  and  gave  liberally  from  his 
own  resources.  He  is  said  to  have  contributed  more  to  the 
erection  of  Episcopal  churches  than  all  the  other  colonial 
governors  combined.  Thirty  houses  of  worship  in  various 
parts  of  the  country  owed  their  e}«stence  in  great  part 
to  him.  He  found  three  church  clergymen,  six  Roman 
priests,  and  a  number  of  itinerant  nonconforming  Prot- 
estant preachers  in  the  colony  on  his  arrival.  Several 
clergymen,  however,  accompanied  him.  He  at  once  set 
to  work  to  make  the  Establishment  a  reality,  applying  the 
arrears  of  what  had  been  collected  under  the  law  of  the 
Establishment,  and  now  in  the  hands  of  the  sheriffs  and 
vestrymen,  to  the  erection  of  churches  in  the  parishes,  and 
soon  settled  eight  clergymen  in  them.i  He  at  once  began 
the  erection  of  a  brick  church  in  Annapolis,  which  town 
was  now  made  the  capital  of  the  colony,  instead  of  St. 
Mary's.  Roman  Catholics  and  Quakers  were  both  aroused 
to  opposition  by  his  energy ;  but  he  was  more  than  a  match 

1  Hawks,  "  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,"  vol.  ii. 


DR.  BRAY  APPOINTED    COMMISSARY.  65 

for  them.  They  together  opposed  the  "  forty  per  poll 
law."  This  law  was  sustained,  but  it  gave  a  very  sparse 
support  to  the  clergy.  The  planters  paid  their  tax  with 
poor  tobacco,  not  worth  a  fourth  part  as  much  as  the  qual- 
ity which  they  reserved  for  themselves ;  so  that,  while  the 
law  contemplated  a  living  worth  a  hundred  pounds,  twenty- 
five  was  often  as  much  as  the  clergyman  received.  It  was 
of  this  tax  that  the  Rev.  James  McSparran  wrote  his  sar- 
castic description  in  his  "  America  Dissected  "  :  "A  com- 
petent pension  in  a  cheap  country,  were  not  physic  dearer 
than  food,  and  the  demands  for  it  (especially  about  the 
vernal  and  autumnal  equinoxes)  more  frequent  than  the 
eatables."  ^ 

The  clergy  were  also  disquieted  by  the  fear  of  the  re- 
establishment  of  Roman  Catholic  ascendency,  occasioned 
by  the  large  immigration  of  Irish  and  the  rumor  that  Lord 
Baltimore  would  be  reinstated  as  governor.  They  therefore 
besought  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  to  send  out  a  commissary 
empowered  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  the  church.  This 
movement  was  supported  by  the  governor  and  Assembly, 
who  petitioned  the  king  to  annex  the  judicial  to  the  eccle- 
siastical function  of  the  commissary  whom  the  Bishop  of 
Lincoln  should  appoint.  This  was  a  movement  of  the 
greatest  wisdom,  and  it  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  Dr. 
Thomas  Bray,  a  man  of  noble  and  devoted  character,  who 
was  drawn  to  the  work  by  the  denials  and  sacrifices  which 
it  involved,  and  who  accepted  the  appointment  with  alacrity. 
Awake  to  the  necessity  of  securing  clergymen  of  character 
and  intelligence  for  his  missionaries,  he  spent  four  years 
before  going  out  to  his  field  of  labor  in' securing  parochial 
libraries  for  his  clergy;  and  during  his  life  he  established  [ 
thirty-nine  of  them  in  the  colonies,  some  containing  over  a  \ 
thousand  volumes.     He  was  indefatigable,  also,  in  search- 

l  "  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church/'  Appendix,  p.  493. 


66  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.  [Chap.  hi. 

ing  for  faithful  men  to  take  with  him,  and  was  able  to  in- 
I  crease  the  number  of  clergymen  in  Maryland  to  sixteen. 
'To  accomplish  these  ends  he  labored  incessantly,  and  in 
them  expended  almost  his  whole  earnings,  refusing  to  ac- 
cept his  salary  until  he  should  depart  for  his  post.^  He 
was,  in  fact,  a  very  apostle  of  zeal  and  devotion,  and,  like 
an  apostle,  met  opposition  and  rebuff  on  every  hand.  It 
was  during  this  period  of  delay,  but  not  of  inaction,  that 
he  proposed  and  started  the  movement  which  resulted  in 
the  inauguration  of  two  of  the  most  influential  societies  of 
the  English  Church,  namely,  the  Society  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge  and  the  Society  for  Propagating  the 
[Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts.  The  debt  of  the  church  in 
America  to  the  latter  is  so  .immense  that  it  may  well  hold 
in  grateful  remembrance  the  name  of  its  chief  founder, 
while  it  recalls  the  fact  that  the  province  in  which  he 
labored  received  less  aid  from  the  society  he  inaugurated 
than  almost  any  of  the  American  colonies.  This  result  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  church,  being  by  law  established 
in  Maryland,  was  supposed  capable  of  taking  care  of  itself. 
This  Establishment  and  the  troubles  arising  from  it  was 
the  immediate  occasion  for  the  departure  of  Dr.  Bray  for 
America. 

The  new  law  of  1696,  which  superseded  all  the  previous 
enactments  of  1692,  1694,  and  1695,  had  aroused  the  vio- 
lent opposition  of  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Quakers, 
and,  chiefly  by  the  management  of  the  latter,  had  been 
annulled  by  Parliament  in  1699.  It  was  deemed  expedient 
by  the  churchmen  of  Maryland  that  the  commissary  should 
now  come  out,  and  by  his  presence  influence  the  Assem- 
bly to  pass  such  an  act  as  would  secure  the  king's  approval. 
Accordingly,  on  December  20,  1699,  Dr.  Bray  sailed,  him- 
self defraying  the  expenses  of  his  voyage  by  disposing  of 
his  effects  and  by  resort  to  his  credit.     He  arrived  March 


MARYLAND  ACT  OF  ESTABLISHMENT.  67 

12,  1700,  and  at  once  set  about  the  work  in  hand.  Gov- 
ernor Nicholson  welcomed  him  warmly,  and,  being  of  one 
mind  in  regard  to  the  wisdom  of  an  Establishment,  they 
succeeded  in  securing  the  passage,  by  the  unanimous  vote 
of  the  Assembly,  of  a  law  of  Establishment  as  stringent  as 
the  English  law  before  the  Act  of  Toleration.  It  is  true 
that  four  fifths  of  the  population  were  now  classed  as  of  the 
English  Church,  and  that  the  other  fifth  was  largely  divided 
in  sentiment  and  conviction,  a  good  proportion  of  it  being 
unattached  to  any  religious  body,  and  indifTerent.  But  all 
the  dissenters  became  one  in  opposition  to  a  bill  which  re- 
quired "  every  minister  or  reader  in  every  church  or  other 
place  of  public  worship  within  this  province  "  to  use  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  as  established  by  the  English 
Church.  It  was  the  firm  opposition  to  this  law  which 
finally  deprived  the  colony  of  the  benefit  of  the  com- 
missary's presence.  Fearing  its  rejection  by  Parliament, 
the  governor  and  churchmen  of  Maryland  urged  him  to 
return  to  England  to  secure  official  approval  of  it.  After, 
therefore,  only  a  brief  stay  in  America,  Dr.  Bray  left  for 
England,  never  to  return  to  the  colony,  but  also  never  to 
cease  to  labor  for  its  welfare.  In  the  meantime,  before  his 
departure  was  contemplated,  and  immediately  after  the 
Act  of  Establishment  was  passed  by  the  Assembly,  the 
commissary  summoned  all  the  clergy  to  a  convocation, 
which  was  held  in  Annapolis  May  23,  1700.  Fourteen 
out  of  the  seventeen  clergymen  came  together,  to  whom 
he  gave  an  earnest  and  solemn  charge  concerning  both 
doctrine  and  discipline.  In  regard  to  the  latter  things  had 
come  to  such  a  pass  that  "  it  was  recommended  that  im- 
mediately upon  the  arrival  of  any  ship  in  the  waters  of 
Maryland  the  nearest  clergyman  should  make  inquiry 
whether  any  minister  was  on  board,  and,  if  so,  what  his 
demeanor  had  been  upon  the  voyage."    This  was  with  the 


68  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  hi. 

view  of  excluding  any  clergyman  from  settlement  in  any 
parish  if  he  had  been  of  evil  report.  At  this  same  con- 
vocation Dr.  Bray  began  the. first  missionary  efifort  in  any 
of  the  colonies  by  trying  to  raise  funds  for  a  missionary  to 
the  Quakers  in  the  neighboring  province  of  Pennsylvania, 
encouraged  to  the  undertaking  by  the  conversion  to  the 
church  of  sundry  Quakers  in  Maryland.  The  attempt 
came  to  little,  but  it  showed  the  spirit  of  the  man.  After 
this  convocation  the  commissary  made  a  vfsitation  of  his 
field  of  labor.  He  found  some  faithful  ministers,  but  more 
indifferent  and  lethargic  ones.  He  summoned  some  to 
trial,  and  endeavored  to  suppress  scandalous  living.  The 
powers  of  the  commissary  in  matters  of  discipline  were, 
however,  small.  The  governor,  who  appointed  the  in- 
cumbents, was  jealous  of  interference  with  his  preroga- 
tives ;  and  the  easy-going  people  were  more  at  ease  with 
an  easy-going  parson  than  with  one  of  the  strict  and  devout 
type  of  the  commissary. 

When  Dr.  Bray  left  for  England  after  his  brief  sojourn 
in  Maryland,  he  had  simply  given  an  impulse  to  a  better 
life  of  the  church,  without  having  been  able  to  rectify  many 
of  the  abuses  which  he  deplored.  On  his  arrival  at  home 
he  found  the  opponents  of  the  colony's  Act  of  Establish- 
ment very  active  and  aggressive  ;  and  the  act  as  passed  was 
disapproved  by  the  attorney-general.  Dr.  Bray  succeeded 
in  having  another  bill  drawn,  which,  while  establishing  the 
church,  extended  to  Protestant  dissenters  and  Quakers  the 
English  Act  of  Toleration.  This  was  finally  approved  by 
Parliament  and  the  colonial  authorities,  and  received  the 
royal  assent  in  i  702.  The  act  provided  for  the  support  of 
ministers  of  the  Establishment  by  imposing  the  tax  of  forty 
pounds  per  poll  of  tobacco,  which  the  sheriffs  were  directed 
to  collect ;  and  the  manner  of  appointing  vestries  was  de- 
cided, together  with  other  matters  of  ecclesiastical  regula- 


INFLUENCE    OF  COMMISSARY  BRAY.  69 

tion.  The  most  signal  injustice  was  done  by  the  act  to 
the  Roman  Catholics,  to  whom  the  benefit  of  the  Act  of 
Toleration  was  not  extended.  And  so,  in  the  language  of 
Dr.  Hawks,  "  Maryland  presented  the  picture  of  a  province, 
founded  for  the  sake  of  freedorri  of  religious  opinion  by  the 
toil  and  treasure  of  Roman  Catholics,  in  which,  of  all  who 
called  themselves  Christians,  none  save  Roman  Catholics 
were  denied  toleration."  1  Such  legislation  is  the  sarcasm 
of  history,  and  in  the  end  it  failed  to  prosper  those  in 
whose  interests  it  was  enacted. 

During  the  controversy  over  this  matter,  and  to  further 
the  cause  of  the  colony,  the  commissary  printed  a  memo- 
rial which  had  the  effect  of  arousing  public  interest.  In 
it  he  stated  that  forty  missionaries  were  wanted  at  once, 
and  declared  that  the  refuse  of  the  clergy  in  England 
would  not  do  for  American  missionaries.  They  must  be 
young,  strong  enough  to  endure  privation,  learned,  able 
to  controvert  the  endless  variety  of  religious  opinions 
rife  among  the  colonists,  and  have  a  true  missionary 
spirit,  and  ardent  zeal  for  God's  glory  and  the  salvation  of 
men's  souls.  To  obtain  such  men  he  proposed  that  each 
bishop  should  select  some  of  his  own  clergy  qualified  and 
willing  to  go,  and  that  each  parish  of  the  diocese  be  asked 
to  contribute  fifty  pounds  annually  for  the  support  of  each 
missionary  from  that  diocese.  This  trumpet-blast  aroused 
the  church.  The  plan  failed  ;  but  the  result  was  the  estab- 
lishment at  last  of  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel 
in  Foreign  Parts.  Such  noble  work  can  one  devoted  spirit 
accomplish !  But  he  not  only  aroused  others.  Until  the 
day  of  his  death,  in  1734,  he  never  ceased  to  work  for  the 
church  in  Maryland,  to  contribute  to  its  support,  and  to 
seek  missionaries  for  it.  He  never  returned  to  it,  but  he 
did  more  than  all  others  to  forward  the  interests  of  religion 
1  Hawks,  "  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  117. 


70  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  hi. 

within  its  communion.  Having  ample  experience  of  the 
lamentable  results  arising  from  the  lack  of  ecclesiastical 
authority  in  the  colonial  church,  he  published  a  memorial 
on  the  necessity  of  an  ecclesiastical  superior  in  Maryland, 
and  proposed  a  plan  for  his  support.  He  was  not  responsi- 
ble for  the  miscarriage  of  this  scheme,  which  was  frustrated 
by  others.  He  sought  to  empower  three  of  the  most  repu- 
table of  the  Maryland  clergy  to  act  as  his  representatives 
in  holding  visitations  and  forwarding  his  purposes,  to  which 
plans,  however,  the  clergy  would  not  submit. 

Upon  receiving  intelligence  that  a  most  profligate  clergy- 
man whom  he  had  driven  into  Virginia  had,  during  his 
absence,  returned  and  secured  one  of  the  best  parishes, 
possessing  one  of  the  largest  parochial  libraries,  he  urged 
the  Bishop  of  London  to  send  another  commissary  at  once  ; 
and,  as  this  unworthy  minister  had  been  presented  and 
inducted  by  the  governor.  Dr.  Bray  sought  to  have  the 
induction  transferred  to  the  commissary,  who  otherwise 
could  have  no  control  over  the  incumbent.  With  the 
criminal  folly  or  indifference  of  the  times,  the  plan  was 
never  adopted.  The  church  was  looked  upon  in  England 
too  exclusively  as  an  appendage  of  the  state  to  lead  it  to 
strengthen  the  ecclesiastical  and  lessen  the  political  au- 
thority over  it.  Colonel  Seymour,  who  succeeded  to  the 
position  of  governor,  at  this  time  declared  he  would  have 
no  commissary,  and  he  kept  his  word.  He  not  only  sought 
to  keep  his  own  church  in  abject  submission  to  himself, 
but  had  laws  of  excessive  rigor  passed  in  regard  to  Roman 
Catholics,  whose  priests  were  permitted  to  officiate  only  in 
private  families,  and  were  strictly  forbidden  to  keep  school 
or  act  in  any  way  as  instructors. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  immoralities  of  some  of 
the  clergy  became  so  glaring  that  the  legislature  proceeded 
to  establish  an  ecclesiastical  court.     Their  spiritual  court, 


A   MINISTER'S  WORK  AND  PAY.  7 1 

which  was  to  superintend  the  conduct  of  the  clergy,  was 
to  consist  of  the  governor  and  three  laymen,  and  these 
were  to  have  the  power  of  suspension  from  the  ministry. 
The  measure  was  passed  by  the  House  of  legislature,  and 
only  failed  to  become  a  law  by  the  veto  of  the  governor, 
who  was  a  very  Gallio  in  these  matters.  It  roused  the 
clergy  to  make  a  remonstrance  to  the  Bishop  of  London ; 
but  the  movement  came  to  nothing.  The  scandals  in  the 
church  went  on.  The  burden  falling  on  the  faithful  clergy 
was  made  the  heavier  by  the  neglect  of  the  unfaithful. 
One  of  these  faithful  ones  wrote  thus  to  his  bishop :  "  For 
four  years  I  have  served  the  whole  county  of  Somerset, 
consisting  of  four  parishes,  so  that  six  congregations  are 
suppHed  by  me.  I  must  travel  two  hundred  miles  a  month 
(on  horseback),  besides  my  charge  in  my  own  parish,  which 
has  a  church  and  chapel,  and  is  thirty  miles  long  and  six- 
teen to  eighteen  wide.  I  have  received  by  my  ministry 
and  perquisites,  since  October  last,  but  a  poor  ten  shil- 
lings." Dissent  flourished  under  this  state  of  things,  as 
was  no  wonder;  and  frequent  disputes  naturally  occurred 
between  incumbents  and  their  vestries,  so  that  the  progress 
of  ecclesiastical  affairs  was  from  bad  to  worse.  Such  was 
the  result  of  the  absence  of  all  proper  government  and 
the  presence  of  placemen  eager  for  spoils,  instead  of 
priests  eager  for  souls.  The  predominant  idea  of  a  state 
church  at  home  threw  its  baleful  shadow  over  the  spiritual 
estate  of  the  colonies.  There  was  but  a  form  of  godli- 
ness, which  denied  the  power  thereof.  "  The  Roman 
Catholics  and  dissenters  looked  with  contempt  upon  an 
Establishment  so  profligate  in  some  of  its  members  that 
even  the  laity  sought  to  purify  it,  and  yet  so  weak  in  its 
discipline  that  neither  clergy  nor  laity  could  purge  it  of 
offenders."  ^ 

1  Maryland  MSS.  ;   from  archives  at  Fulham. 


72  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  hi. 

When  Governor  Hart  succeeded  Seymour  in  1714,  a 
movement  was  made  for  the  betterment  of  the  anomalous 
condition  of  affairs ;  and,  though  the  request  of  both  the 
clergy  and  the  governor  for  a  bishop  was  denied,  two  com- 
missioners were  appointed,  one  for  the  eastern  and  one  for 
the  western  shore  of  Maryland.  The  two  commissioners, 
Rev.  Christopher  Wilkinson  and  Rev.  Jacob  Henderson, 
were  both  residents  of  Maryland,  and  both  men  of  excel- 
lent character  and  acquirements.  Wilkinson,  who  took  the 
eastern  shore,  was  less  forcible  than  Henderson ;  but  he 
kept  better  out  of  trouble,  for  he  lived  peaceably,  while 
Henderson  had  many  quarrels,  and,  by  reason  of  a  more 
dictatorial  disposition,  was  at  times  quite  out  of  harmony 
with  the  governor  and  others  in  authority.  Wilkinson 
convened  the  seven  clergymen  of  his  district  at  once,  and 
discovered  an  attempt  of  the  landed  proprietors,  who  were 
jealous  and  distrustful  of  commissioners,  to  starve  out  the 
incumbents  by  dividing  the  parishes  until  the  tobacco  tax 
would  be  insufficient  for  a  clergyman's  support.  The  tem- 
per of  the  legislature  rendered  the  execution  of  this  plan 
quite  possible ;  so  that  the  clergy  petitioned  the  Bishop 
of  London  to  intercede  with  Lord  Guilford,  the  guardian 
of  Lord  Baltimore  (who,  though  under  age,  was  now  pro- 
prietary, by  reason  of  his  father's  conversion  to  Protest- 
antism), to  instruct  the  governor  for  the  time  being  to 
pass  no  law  relative  to  ecclesiastical  matters  without  first 
allowing  the  commissioners  or  some  of  the  clergy  a  hearing 
on  the  subject.  The  petition  is  significant  in  its  disclosure 
of  the  alienation  of  the  gentry  from  the  church  on  account 
of  the  temporalities  included — an  alienation  which  a  little 
later  took  the  form  of  positive  opposition. 

Commissary  Henderson,  also,  undertook  a  visitation 
on  the  western  shore,  but  in  a  manner  more  energetic 
than  discreet.    Twelve  clergymen  and  churchwardens  from 


ALIENATION  FROM    THE    CHURCH.  73 

thirteen  parishes  assembled  at  Annapolis.  The  commis- 
sary, with  a  commendable  zeal,  but  with  a  lack  of  knowl- 
edge which  was  not  commendable,  took  a  high  hand  in 
calling  the  gentry  to  account  for  their  morals,  and  in  de- 
manding the  licenses  and  letters  of  orders  from  the  clergy. 
His  method  alienated  both  the  clergy  and  laity,  and  re- 
sulted in  an  estrangement  between  the  commissioner  and 
the  governor  which  was  lasting.  The  clergy,  however, 
came  to  terms  ;  and  the  commissioner,  regaining  their  con- 
fidence, labored  diligently  for  the  church,  with  some  meas- 
ure of  success.  This  exhibition  of  official  importance,  how- 
ever, strengthened  a  prejudice  already  existing  against 
any  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  power  in  the  province  by  the 
Bishop  of  London,  either  directl];^  or  through  a  com- 
missary. All  who  were  conscious  that  such  power  might 
well  call  them  to  account  took  this  occasion  to  awaken  in 
the  minds  of  the  people  a  fear  of  a  danger  to  their  freedom 
from  the  introduction  of  ecclesiastical  courts. 

An  attempt,  however,  was  made  by  the  governor,  who 
was  always  friendly  with  Commissary  Wilkinson,  to  have 
the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  as 
exercised  by  his  commissaries,  acknowledged  by  a  formal 
act  of  the  legislature.  He  contrived  to  put  the  whole  body 
of  the  clergy  between  himself  and  the  odium  sure  to  follow 
from  such  an  act,  by  making  the  clergy  petition  for  it.  It 
was  rejected  by  the  lower  House;  and  the  effect  of  the 
attempt  to  pass  it  was  to  further  alienate  the  people  and 
the  gentry  from  the  church,  which  from  this  time  was  re- 
garded as  a  menace  to  colonial  freedom.  Harmony  was 
restored  by  Hart's  removal  in  1720,  when  Charles  Calvert 
assumed  the  government  under  authority  from  the  pro- 
prietary. Calvert's  father  had  become  a  Protestant,  and 
he  had  been  bred  as  one  ;  and  after  his  coming  the  church 
was  more  favored  by  legislation  than  heretofore. 


74  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  hi. 

The  province  now  contained  (i  720)  thirty-eight  parishes 
in  its  twelve  counties,  fifteen  on  the  eastern  shore  and 
twenty-three  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Chesapeake.  A 
commissary  on  each  shore  visited  the  churches  once  in 
three  years.  Tlie  clergy  were  assembled  annually  to  con- 
sult on  the  discharge  of  their  ministerial  functions ;  but 
the  commissaries  ceased  to  require  the  churchwardens  to 
make  presentment  of  offenders,  because  the  failure  of  the 
attempt  to  get  legislative  recognition  of  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Bishop  of  London  had  convinced  the  people  that 
the  episcopal  authority  in  Maryland  had  no  well-founded 
claim.  Thus  discipline  languished ;  for  if  the  commissary 
tried  an  ofTender,  there  was  no  one  to  punish  him  if  con- 
victed. In  fact,  the  church  suffered  from  the  fact  of  its 
establishment.  It  had  no  discipline  of  its  own,  and  the 
ecclesiastical  powers  in  England  would  not  exercise  at 
that  distance  disciplinary  authority. 

There  were  now  about  ten  or  eleven  thousand  church 
families  in  the  province,  and  some  three  thousand  com- 
municants, such  as  they  were.  Notwithstanding  the  size 
of  the  parishes,  some  being  nine  and  some  seventy  miles 
long,  the  sacrament  was  administered  once  in  two  months 
in  most  churches,  and  sometimes  oftener,  and  the  children 
were  catechised  in  every  parish  at  some  part  of  the  year. 
A  clergyman's  stipend  was  about  fifty  pounds,  which  was 
paid  in  tobacco. 

A  premature  effort  was  at  this  time  made  to  introduce 
a  common-school  system  into  the  province,  the  masters  in 
which  were  required  to  be  members  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, of  pious  and  exemplary  life,  "  and  capable  of  teaching 
well  the  grammar,  good  writing,  and  mathematics,  if  such 
can  conveniently  be  got."  One  of  the  clergy  was  to  be 
placed  at  the  head  of  each  board  of  visitors.  The  sparse- 
ness  of  the  population,  scattered  over  the  immense  parishes, 


THE    CLERGY  AND    THE  LEGISLATURE  AT  ODDS.    75 

prevented  the  success  of  the  scheme.     To  have  considered 
it,  however,  was  a  cheering  sign  of  hfe. 

And  now  came  on  a  long  controversy  between  the  clergy 
and  the  legislature,  which,  on  various  pretexts,  attempted 
to  divide  the  parishes  and  diminish  the  revenues.  The 
Assembly  took  the  ground  that  all  the  revenues  of  the 
church  were  completely  within  its  power,  and  might  be 
diminished  without  any  invasion  of  the  church's  rights. 
Governor  Calvert  wrote  the  Bishop  of  London  that  the 
profligacy  of  the  clergy  afforded  now  little  just  cause  of 
complaint ;  that  the  majority  were  orderly  and  exemplary, 
and  all  were  attached  to  the  home  government.  But  the 
antagonism  had  become  too  deep-rooted  to  be  suppressed. 
The  opponents  of  the  church  found  a  most  persistent  and 
virulent  leader  in  one  Thomas  Bordsley,  who  seems  to 
have  cherished  his  hatred  of  the  clergy  on  political  rather 
than  on  religious  grounds.  He  introduced  a  bill  to  estab- 
lish a  court  for  the  trial  of  clergymen,  and  thus  to  bring 
them  under  lay  rule.  The  governor  refused  his  assent. 
Many  better  men  than  Bordsley  now  joined  with  him, 
aggrieved  by  the  imposition  on  them  of  inducted  clergy- 
men who  were  a  disgrace  to  the  church,  and  whom  they 
could  not  get  rid  of.  They  saw  no  remedy  but  to  legis- 
late against  the  clergy.  There  was  this  measure  of  legal 
palliation  for  the  movement :  that  the  church  had  not  been 
established  under  the  proprietary  rule,  which  was  now  in 
force,  but  during  the  interregnum,  under  William  and 
Mary,  while  Maryland  was  a  royal  province.  Under  the 
royal  government  the  Bishop  of  London  had  some,  though 
insufficient,  powers ;  but  under  the  proprietary  system  all 
control  was  in  effect  destroyed,  because  the  proprietor, 
under  his  charter,  had  authority  to  interfere  with  even  the 
restricted  powers  of  the  bishop.  The  jurisdiction  of  a 
bishop  or  his  commissary  amounted  to  nothing  while  the 


76  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  hi. 

governor  had  the  sole  right  of  induction,  and  while  induc- 
tion gave  the  incumbent  a  life-tenure  on  the  temporalities 
of  the  parish,  no  matter  what  his  conduct  might  be.  Under 
these  conditions  the  ecclesiastical  authority  could  not  pre- 
vent bad  men  getting  in,  could  not  proscribe  them  while 
in,  and  could  not  get  them  out  when  once  in. 

Both  parties  appealed  vehemently  to  the  powers  in  Eng- 
land, and  the  clergy  earnestly  implored  that  a  bishop  might 
be  sent  to  them.  Their  previous  lethargy  and  dread  of 
ecclesiastical  oversight  now  told  against  them.  The  state 
of  public  opinion  had  become  such  that  the  people  would 
not  tolerate  the  presence  of  a  bishop,  lest  he  should 
strengthen  the  hated  institution.  In  response  to  the  ap- 
peal of  the  clergy  the  Bishop  of  London,  whether  with 
or  without  the  royal  assent  is  not  known,  invited  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Colebatch,  an  excellent  and  devout  clergyman  of  Mary- 
land, to  come  to  England  and  receive  consecration  as 
bishop,  and  return  to  Maryland  as  his  suffragan.  The 
public,  however,  was  roused  to  intense  opposition ;  a  writ 
of  lie  exeat  was  issued,  and  Mr.  Colebatch's  departure  was 
prohibited  by  the  court. 

The  attack  on  the  income  of  the  clergy  was  kept  up  in 
various  forms,  now  by  diminishing  the  quantity  of  tobacco, 
now  by  substituting  grain  or  other  produce  for  part  of  the 
amount,  now  by  fixing  a  money  value  on  the  amount, 
which  virtually  reduced  a  clergyman's  salary  to  thirty 
pounds.  Commissary  Henderson  was  secretly  sent  to 
England  to  see  what  he  could  do ;  and  finally  Lord  Balti- 
more, the  proprietor,  disapproved  the  act  commuting  and 
diminishing  the  payments  to  be  made  to  the  clergy,  and 
sent  his  instructions  to  his  governor  in  Maryland  not  to 
consent  to  any  act  the  object  of  which  was  to  diminish 
the  revenues  of  the  clergy,  as  they  had  been  fixed  by  the 
law  for  the  establishment  of  religion.     When  Commissary 


VALUE    OF  MARYLAND  LLVLNGS.  J  J 

Henderson  returned,  after  this  measure  of  success,  his  op- 
ponents threatened  to  mob  him.  He,  however,  admin- 
istered such  a  sound  thrashing  to  one  who  personahy  at- 
tacked him  that  his  person  was  thereafter  safe.  He  had 
been  appointed  commissary  of  both  the  eastern  and  west- 
ern shores  of  Maryland  during  his  visit  to  England,  and 
he  held  visitations  in  each.  But  he  found  his  powers  of 
discipline  negatived  by  the  law  of  induction,  and  could  not 
maintain  the  purity  of  the  church  as  he  desired. 

In  the  meantime  the  governor,  in  defiance  of  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  lord  proprietor,  on  hearing  of  his  decision,  con- 
vened an  Assembly,  and  renewed  the  warfare  on  the  church 
in  another  way.  The  whole  province  was  agitated  by  the 
dispute.  Distinguished  lawyers  took  it  up  as  well  as 
prominent  divines;  and  at  last  Lord  Baltimore  gave  his 
assent  to  the  law  allowing  the  payment  of  the  forty  per 
poll  tax  in  grain,  and  the  legislature  was  triumphant  over 
the  church. 

When,  in  1731,  Samuel  Ogle  succeeded  Leonard,  the 
proprietor's  brother,  as  governor,  he  showed  himself  friendly 
to  the  clergy,  and  strove  to  bring  about  a  better  under- 
standing between  them  and  the  laity.  Lord  Baltimore, 
too,  coming  over  to  see  to  the  dispute  with  the  Penn 
settlement  about  the  boundary  question,  which  involved 
the  possession  of  Delaware,  exerted  a  pacifying  influence. 
But  the  old  trouble  of  want  of  discipline  remained;  and 
Commissary  Henderson  at  last  ceased  to  claim  or  exercise 
any  rights  as  commissary,  and  left  matters  to  drift  as  well 
as  they  might.  While,  however,  the  spiritual  condition  of 
the  church  was  deplorable,  nowhere  else  in  America  were 
the  livings  so  valuable.  There  were  now  thirty-six  par- 
ishes in  the  province,  and  the  incomes  would  average  two 
hundred  pounds  per  annum.  Notwithstanding  the  law  of 
1730,  reenacted  in  1747,  diminishing  the  amount  of  the 


78  PROTESl^ANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  hi. 

tobacco  tax  for  clerical  support,  the  improved  condition  of 
the  country  and  the  increase  of  inhabitants  had  more  than 
compensated  the  loss ;  and  yet  all  the  controversies  of  the 
clergy  had  turned  on  this  point  of  their  living.  Nothing 
spiritual  or  intellectual,  no  problems  of  theology  or  ques- 
tions of  efficient  administration,  had  awakened  their  interest. 
The  voice  was  the  clamor  for  gain,  the  utterance  of  the 
worldliness  of  their  hearts.  "  No  wonder,"  writes  Dr. 
Hawks,  "  that  such  a  bastard  Establishment  as  that  of 
Maryland  was  odious  to  so  many  of  the  people ;  we  think 
their  dislike  is  evidence  of  their  virtue."  And  no  wonder 
that  the  Methodists,  who  now  came  in,  swept  the  country  ; 
no  wonder  that  the  enthusiasm  of  the  New  Lights  and 
other  itinerant  preachers  found  a  hearty,  if  ignorant,  re- 
sponse ;  no  wonder  that  Quakers  and  Presbyterians  from 
Pennsylvania  gathered  large  numbers  into  their  respective 
folds. 

The  Roman  Catholic  population  was  now  increased  by 
many  French  emigrants  from  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  first 
Roman  church  was  erected  in  Baltimore  about  1755. 
In  1 760  the  German  Lutherans  built  themseh-es  a  small 
church  in  that  city,  which  was  only  a  village  in  reality. 
In  1763,  notwithstanding  all  unfavorable  circumstances, 
the  Episcopal  Church  had  so  increased  in  Baltimore  that 
a  chapel  of  ease  was  erected  for  the  parish  of  St.  Paul's, 
whose  first  church  was  begun  in  i  732  and  finished  in  i  744. 
It  was  in  the  year  1763  that  the  legislature  reduced  the 
salaries  of  the  clergy  one  fourth ;  and  the  murmurings  and 
bickerings  which  the  act  occasioned,  while  ineffectual,  in- 
creased the  irritation  of  the  quarrel  between  the  people  and 
the  Established  Church.  The  state  of  affairs  was  such 
that  but  for  the  interruption  of  the  American  Revolution, 
according  to  Dr.  Hawks,  "  the  time  would  have  come  when 
the  singular  spectacle  would  have  been  presented  of  the 


EFFECT  OF   THE   COMING  REVOLUTION.  79 

extinction  of  a  church  estabHshed  by  law,  while  no  man 
could  have  found  in  the  legislation  of  the  country  a  statute 
expressly  depriving  it  of  its  character  as  an  establishment. 
Its  downfall  might  have  been  traced  in  the  side  issues  of 
an  indirect  legislation  that  from  time  to  time  assailed  it."  ^ 
When  the  clergy,  in  response  to  the  appeal  of  the  Epis- 
copalians of  the  North,  joined  in  a  concerted  action  for  an 
American  episcopate,  the  governor  informed  them  "  that 
the  livings  in  Maryland  were  all  donations,  or  subject  to 
the  visitation  and  regulation  of  the  patron  alone,  and  there- 
fore they  stood  in  no  need  of  episcopal  supervision."  This 
was  the  last  meeting  of  the  clergy  for  concerted  action, 
Governor  Eden,  by  command  of  the  proprietor,  issuing  a 
mandate  that  they  should  convene  no  more. 

As  the  time  of  the  Revolution  approached,  political  sen- 
timent mingled  with  and  intensified  the  hostility  of  the 
people  to  the  Established  Church.  In  1770  the  act  of 
1763,  regulating  the  income  of  the  clergy,  expired.  The 
legislature,  by  the  disagreement  of  the  two  Houses,  failed 
to  reenact  it.  It  had  regulated  the  fees  of  all  State  officers  ; 
and  Governor  Eden,  in  the  absence  of  legislation,  resolved 
to  regulate  them  by  proclamation.  In  1771  the  Lower 
House  denounced  the  proclamation  as  illegal,  and  asserted 
the  right  of  taxation  to  be  in  the  Assembly  alone.  The 
excitement  was  universal  and  intense,  and  in  the  end  the 
people  triumphed.  As  regards  the  church,  when  the  act 
of  1763  lapsed,  through  failure  to  reenact  it,  the  old  act 
of  1702,  by  which  the  church  was  established,  became  the 
only  statute  regulating  the  assessment  for  the  clergy.  It 
increased  the  salaries  of  the  clergy  one  fourth,  for  it  re- 
stored the  "  forty  per  poll  "  tax  of  tobacco,  in  place  of  the 
"thirty  per  poll,"  as  enacted  by  the  law  of  1763.  The 
clergy  were  prompt  to  assert  their  claim ;  the  people  as 

1  Hawks,  "  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  247. 


8o  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  hi. 

prompt  to  resist  it.  The  ground  taken  by  the  latter  was 
this  :  that  as  the  Assembly  which  passed  the  act  met  under 
writs  of  election  issued  in  the  name  of  King  William,  and 
assembled  only  on  the  i6th  of  March,  while  the  king,  un- 
known to  them,  had  died  on  March  8th,  their  authority 
ceased  with  the  king's  life ;  and  that  the  act  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Church  of  England  in  Maryland,  though 
acted  upon  for  seventy  years,  had  never  been  law. 

The  conflict,  therefore,  for  the  church  assumed  the  char- 
acter of  an  issue  of  life  and  death.  On  the  part  of  the 
people  the  conflict  wore  the  aspect  of  a  contention  for 
national  rights.  The  principle  which  had  all  along  been 
developing  in  colonial  legislation,  "  no  representation,  no 
taxation,"  was  applied  to  this"  burning  question.  It  was 
settled  onl}^  by  the  Revolution,  now  fast  approaching;  but 
the  contest  was  violent,  and  drew  forth  distinguished  com- 
batants on  both  sides.  The  most  prominent  advocate  for 
the  church's  rights  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  was  Rev. 
Jonathan  Boucher.  He  was  a  man  of  both  scholarship 
and  character,  and  was  a  vigorous  and  eloquent  writer. 
Born  in  England,  he  had  come  to  America  before  i  761,  in 
which  year  he  was  nominated  as  rector  of  Hanover  parish 
in  Virginia  before  he  was  in  orders.  He  went  to  England 
and  was  ordained  in  1762,  and  in  1768  was  appointed  by 
Governor  Eden  rector  of  St.  Anne's  in  Annapolis,  upon 
which  he  removed  from  Virginia  to  Maryland.  He  now 
preached  a  series  of  sermons  to  enforce  the  Christian  duty 
of  a  citizen,  and  exerted  all  his  powers  to  secure  a  just  and 
equitable  recognition  of  the  church.  He  was,  however,  a 
decided  loyalist,  and  was  ejected  from  the  parish  of  St. 
Anne's  in  Prince  George's  County,  which  he  held,  in  1775. 
He  went  to  England  and  never  returned ;  but  he  never 
lost  his  interest  in  America  or  the  church  implanted  there. 
He  afterward  published  the  sermons  preached  in  Maryland 


DR.  JONATHAN  LWUCHEK.  8 1 

before  the  war,  and  dedicated  them  to  General  Washing- 
ton in  a  preface  which  contained  a  warm  eulogium  upon 
his  character.  This  was  acknowledged  by  Washington  in 
terms  which  conveyed  his  high  estimation  of 'the  author. 

Boucher  was  also  a  warm  friend  of  Seabury  and  White, 
and  corresponded  regularly  with  the  former.  He  is  an 
illustration  of  some  of  the  worthy  men  who  stood  by  the 
church  and  adorned  her  ministry  when  the  faults  of  both 
clergy  and  laity  had  made  her  very  name  unpalatable  to 
the  masses.  The  essays  of  Boucher  during  the  controversy 
on  the  Vestry  Act  were  very  able ;  and  his  calm  tone  of 
discussion,  together  with  his  fair  consideration  of  both 
sides  of  the  case,  caused  them  to  be  regarded  as  just  and 
forcible.  But  the  spirit  of- the  people,  stirred  with  the 
sentiments  of  the  coming  Revolution,  was  not  greatly-  in- 
fluenced by  them.  Lawsuits  abounded,  and  the  claims  of 
the  clergy  were  often  rejected  by  the  courts.  In  1773  the 
question  on  the  Vestry  Act  was  compromised.  An  act  was 
passed  fixing  the  poll-tax  for  the  clergy  at  thirty  pounds 
of  tobacco,  but  with  the  express  provision  that  the  act 
should  have  no  influence  in  deciding  the  validity  of  the  law 
of  1702.  Before  any  legal  decision  had  been  given  the 
Revolution  removed  the  question  beyond  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  courts.  That  Revolution  occupied  all  minds  to  the 
exclusion  of  church  affairs.  It  left  the  church  desolate 
when  it  was  over.  When  it  began  there  were  forty-four 
parishes  in  Maryland,  twenty  on  the  eastern  and  twenty - 
four  on  the  western  shore.  In  every  one  was  an  in- 
cumbent. The  livings  in  some  instances  were  very  valu- 
able. Some  few  were  worth  a  thousand  pounds.  Even 
after  the  "  thirty  per  poll  "  tax  had  been  substituted  for 
the  "  forty  per  poll  "  there  were  but  three  livings  under  a 
hundred  pounds'  annual  income,  and  the  others  usually 
ranged  from  this  up  to  five  hundred  pounds. 


82  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.       [Chap,  hi. 

When  the  Revolution  set  in,  about  two  thirds  of  the 
clergy  were  royalists  and  one  third  stood  for  the  patriots. 
The  line  of  cleavage  did  not  run  on  the  line  of  faithful  and 
unfaithful  ministers.  When  Governor  Eden  was  requested 
to  leave,  which  he  did  in  i  776,  the  authorities  of  Maryland 
prescribed  a  form  of  prayer  for  the  new  instead  of  the  old 
government,  which  a  majority  of  the  incumbents  could  not 
conscientiously  use.  These  must  pay  a  treble  tax  or  leave 
the  country.  Most  of  them  left,  and  a  large  number  of 
churches  were  closed. 

Nor  was  this  opposition  to  the  Revolution  confined  to 
the  clergy  of  the  Establishment.  The  Quakers,  being 
non-combatants,  left  the  province.  The  Methodists,  being 
a  special  sect  of  the  Establishment,  shared  in  the  odium 
cast  upon  it.  Mr.  Asbury,  the  chief  representative  of 
Mr.  Wesley,  and  a  man  of  truly  apostolic  fervor  and  devo- 
tion, was  apprehended  and  fined,  and  had  to  live  two  years 
in  retirement  in  Delaware.  Fines  and  imprisonments  were 
not  uncommon  for  preachers  of  all  kinds  who  declined  to 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States ;  but  tow- 
ard the  end  of  the  war,  when  they  were  found  not  to  be 
politically  active,  their  preaching  was  acquiesced  in. 

The  war  left  the  church  in  Maryland  prostrate,  but  not 
in  so  forlorn  a  condition  as  that  of  some  other  colonies. 
Eighteen  or  twenty  clergymen  remained,  and  the  churches 
were  not  so  generally  demolished  or  dilapidated  as  in 
Virginia,  which  had  been  the  scene  of  greater  and  more 
frequent  conflict.  The  "  Declaration  of  Rights,"  issued  in 
November,  1776,  had  secured  to  the  Church  of  England 
all  the  glebes,  churches,  chapels,  and  other  property  then 
owned  by  her;  and  subsequently,  in  1779,  the  legislature 
passed  an  act  to  establish  select  vestries,  and  vested  in  them 
as  trustees  all  the  property  that  belonged  to  those  parishes 
while  they  were  a  part  of  the  Church  of  England.     This 


THE    CHURCH  AFTER    THE  REVOLUTION.  83 

Declaration  also  affirmed  that  all  persons  professing  the 
Christian  religion  were  equally  entitled  to  protection  in 
their  religious  liberty.  It  had,  however,  prohibited  all 
general  assessments  by  vestries  for  the  support  of  minis- 
ters, but  reserved  for  the  legislature  the  right  to  impose,  at 
its  discretion,  "  a  common  and  equal  tax  for  the  support  of 
the  Christian  religion  in  general,"  allowing  each  taxpayer 
to  designate  the  denomination  to  whose  support  his  con- 
tribution should  be  applied.  In  accordance  with  this  pro- 
vision a  number  of  vestries  in  1 782  gave  notice  of  their 
purpose  to  petition  the  legislature  to  make  a  general  pro- 
vision for  the  support  of  Christianity.  The  movement, 
however,  was  premature,  and  was  not  consummated.  In 
the  anomalous  condition  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  dis- 
established virtually,  and  without  any  governing  power, 
even  of  the  State,  an  attempt  was  actually  made  during 
the  war,  by  the  legislature,  to  organize  it  by  appointing  or- 
dainers  to  the  ministry.  The  movement  was  frustrated 
chiefly  by  Rev.  Samuel  Keene,  who  hastened  to  Annapolis, 
and  by  his  exertions  gave  it  its  quietus. 

We  here  end  the  account  of  the  colonial  church  in  Mary- 
land, as  its  subsequent  history  forms  part  of  the  efi"ort  for 
its  resuscitation  as  an  independent  American  ecclesiastical 
organization. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    COLONIAL    CHURCH    IN    NEW    ENGLAND,    OUTSIDE 
OF    CONNECTICUT. 

Strictly  speaking,  there  is  no  history  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  New  England  before  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  and  scarcely  any  before  the  middle  of  that 
century.  The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel 
in  Foreign  Parts  was  essentially  its  founder,  so  far  as  its 
temporalities  were  concerned,  and  that  society  was  in- 
corporated in  1 701.  Previous  to  the  exertions  of  this 
society,  individual  Episcopal  clergymen  were  found  in  the 
Puritan  colonies,  and  isolated,  feeble,  and  unsuccessful 
attempts  were  made  from  time  to  time  to  establish  church 
settlements.  They  all  gave  way  before  the  overwhelm- 
ing tide  of  Puritan  emigration.  One  characteristic  of  all 
the  New  England  Puritan  settlements,  which  distinguished 
them  essentially  from  those  of  the  colony  in  Virginia,  was 
that  their  inhabitants  dwelt  together  in  towns.  The  climate 
and  the  soil  tended  to  produce  this  result,  but  equally  the 
absorbing  interest  of  the  people  in  religion  and  the  nature 
of  their  ecclesiastical  system.  The  town  was  an  organiza- 
tion for  united  worship  as  well  as  for  the  conduct  of  secular 
affairs.^  This  centralization  of  interests  discouraged  even 
individual  dissent,  and  made  it  especially  obnoxious. 

The  earliest  of  these  settlements  made  their  landing  at 
Plymouth  December  21,  1620.    Though  they  were  Sepa- 

1  Fisher,  "  Colonial  Era,"  p.  99. 
84 


JOHN  LYFORD  AND    THOMAS  MORTON.  85 

ratists,  and  not  merely  nonconforming  members  of  the 
Church  of  England,  as  were  the  Puritans  who  followed, 
they  had  from  time  to  time  individual  churchmen  resident 
among  them.  The  Rev.  John  Lyford,  a  minister  of  the 
Establishment,  came  over  in  1624,  sent  by  merchants  of 
the  New  England  Company.  He  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  a  very  stable,  or  at  times  a  very  reputable,  character, 
and,  as  Bradford  expresses  it,  "  will  goe  minister  the  sacra- 
ments by  his  Episcopal  calling."  1  There  was  no  disposi- 
tion to  countenance  a  schism  in  the  colony,  and  Lyford 
was  banished.  Nevertheless  Plymouth  Colony  in  general 
avoided  harsh  measures  in  dealing  with  theological  mal- 
contents, and  even  served  as  an  asylum  for  persons  whose 
tenets  and  practices  made  them  uncomfortable  in  the  colony 
of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

The  rapid  growth  of  this  colony  is  shown  in  the  fact 
that  twenty  years  after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  it  con- 
tained eight  towns  and  a  population  of  twenty-five  hun- 
dred; and  thirty  years  after  that,  in  1671,  there  were  fifty 
towns  and  eight  thousand  people ;  and  in  this  large  com- 
munity there  was  no  trace  of  Episcopal  institutions  or 
influence. 

In  1622  Thomas  Morton  came  over  with  thirty  follow- 
ers and  established  himself  at  Passonagesset,  a  hill  in  the 
present  town  of  Quincy.  He  led  the  life  of  a  burly  Eng- 
lish squire,  sportsmanlike  and  free ;  erected  May-poles  and 
celebrated  Christmas  with  feasting  and  jollity,  and  main- 
tained the  character  of  a  stout  churchman  more  addicted 
to  the  feasts  than  the  fasts  of  the  church.  His  mode  of 
life  was  a  social  scandal,  and  was  exceedingly  obnoxious 
to  the  general  sentiment  of  the  early  settlers.  Plymouth 
suffered  it,  but  not  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
after  they  became  established.     Endicott  of  Salem  caused 

1  Bradford,  "  Plymouth  Plantation." 


86  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.        [Chap.  iv. 

his  May-pole  to  be  cut  down,  and  rebuked  the  revelers 
for  their  profaneness.  There  was  no  spirit  of  religious 
devotion  in  this  little  company,  and  that  in  itself  was  a 
sufficient  stigma.  Morton,  indeed,  read  prayers  before 
his  household,  and  conducted  services  on  Sunday  as  a  lay 
reader;  but  as  these  acts  of  religious  decorum  were  ac- 
companied by  a  life  of  laxity  and  worldliness,  in  the  eyes 
of  these  colonists  they  only  added  to  his  offenses ;  so  that 
to  use  the  Prayer-book  and  to  be  of  a  gay  humor  were  the 
principal  articles  of  his  condemnation.  He  was  arrested 
by  Captain  Miles  Standish,  and  sent  to  winter  on  the  Isle 
of  Shoals.  His  own  account  of  his  neighbors  is  :  "I  found 
two  sorts  of  people,  the  one  Christians,  the  other  infidels. 
These  I  found  most  full  of  humanity  and  more  friendly 
than  the  others."  He  made  his  way  to  England,  and 
wrote  a  little  book  styled  "  New  English  Canaan,"  which 
on  his  return  did  not  smooth  matters  for  him.  He  was 
doubtless  severely  treated  by  those  to  whom  his  manners 
were  wholly  repugnant.  He  was  imprisoned  for  a  year, 
fined  a  hundred  pounds,  and  then  set  at  liberty.  His 
property  having  been  destroyed,  he  wandered  from  the 
community,  sought  refuge  in  the  royal  province  of  Maine, 
and  died  two  years  after  at  Agamenticus.  He  left  no 
good  impression  for  the  church. 

In  1623  Rev.  William  Morell  came  over  with  Robert 
Gorges,  son  of  Sir  Fernando,  but  saw  no  opportunity  to 
exercise  his  ministry.  He  returned  to  England  within  a 
year,  and  left  no  mark  behind  him.  Rev.  William  Blax- 
ton,  graduate  of  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  in  1625 
occupied  the  present  site  of  Boston.  He  was  then  not 
thirty  years  old,  and  had  probably  come  as  an  assistant  to 
Morell,  who  was  the  ecclesiastical  head  of  Robert  Gorges's 
expedition  in  1623.  Besides  Blaxton,  Thomas  Walford 
was  settled  at  Charlestown  and  Samuel  Maverick  at  East 


REV.    WILLIAM  BLAXTON.  ^7 

Boston.  Thus  in  1629  the  region  of  modern  Boston  had 
individual  members  of  the  Church  of  England  present  in 
its  several  parts.  Maverick,  indeed,  was  a  strong  church- 
man ;  but  Blaxton  does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  strong, 
judging  from  his  own  expression  when,  on  declining  to 
become  a  member  of  the  Puritan  church,  he  said,  "  I  have 
come  from  England  because  I  did  not  like  the  lord  bishops  ; 
but  I  cannot  join  with  you  because  I  would  not  be  under 
the  lord  brethren."  He  welcomed  Winthrop  when  he 
came  over  from  Charlestown  and  settled  on  the  present 
site  of  Boston,  and  he  seems  to  have  lived  in  very  tolera- 
ble harmony  with  the  authorities  and  people  of  the  colony. 
As  these  grew  more  and  more  numerous  the  spirit  of  the 
recluse  bade  him  to  move  away  from  them.  His  land  and 
orchards  were  sold  to  the  authorities  for  a  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars ;  and  he  moved  into  Rhode  Island,  living,  as 
was  said  of  him,  "  near  to  Master  Williams,  but  far  from 
his  opinions."  His  removal  seems  to  have  quickened  his 
ecclesiastical  zeal,  for  he  is  reported  to  have  officiated  not 
unfrequently  in  Providence. 

In  March,  1628,  the  council  of  New  England  made  a 
grant  of  land  to  John  Endicott  and  others.  After  cross- 
ing the  ocean  with  a  small  company  of  about  fifty  or  sixty 
persons,  he  took  the  place  of  Conant  as  head  of  the  settle- 
ment at  Naumkeag,  which  then  received  the  name  of  Salem, 
as  a  memorial  for  the  pacifying  of  the  diff'erences  between 
Conant's  people  and  the  newcomers.  Nothing  was  said 
in  this  grant  on  the  subject  of  religious  liberty,  and  the 
authorities  were  allowed  to  send  home  persons  disaff"ected 
with  their  government.  In  the  spring  of  1629  Endicott's 
settlement  was  reinforced  by  over  four  hundred  fresh 
emigrants,  a  part  of  whom  settled  at  Charlestown.  Here 
the  first  Congregational  church  was  formed,  after  the  Sep- 
aratists'  model.     Among  the   newcomers,  two  brothers, 


88  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  iv. 

John  and  Samuel  Brown,  members  of  the  council,  did 
not  approve  this  ecclesiastical  action,  and  proposed  to  hold 
meetings  by  themselves,  using  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  It  was,  however,  not  intended  to  establish  a 
colony  where  divers  forms  of  faith  and  modes  of  worship 
should  subsist  side  by  side.  The  founders  had  no  idea  of 
admitting  the  principle  of  toleration  ;  and  these  two  brothers 
were  sent  back  to  England,  on  the  return  of  the  vessels, 
the  same  year.  "It  may  be,"  says  Gardiner,  "that  the 
rulers  of  the  little  community  were  wise  in  their  resolution. 
Their  own  religious  liberty  would  have  been  in  danger  if 
a  population  had  grown  up  around  them  ready  to  offer  a 
helping  hand  to  any  repressive  measures  of  the  home  gov- 
ernment. .  .  .  The  intellectual  perception  of  the  value  of 
toleration  had  not  yet  dawned  upon  the  world.  The  prob- 
lem, as  it  presented  itself  to  the  men  of  that  generation, 
was  not  whether  they  were  to  tolerate  others,  but  whether 
they  were  to  give  to  others  the  opportunity  of  being  in- 
tolerant to  themselves.  Each  party  looked  upon  the  other 
as  something  to  be  repressed  and  extirpated.  The  Puritan 
demanded  exact  conformity  with  his  doctrine ;  Laud  de- 
manded exact  conformity  with  his  practice.  Each  party 
regarded  itself  as  standing  on  the  defensive."  ^ 

It  is  clear  that  Episcopal  churchmen  could  stand  but  a 
poor  chance  for  the  exercise  of  their  religious  convictions 
in  communities  constituted  as  were  the  early  colonies  in 
New  England.  Thus,  when  Thomas  Lechford,  a  lawyer 
who  supported  the  cause  of  Mr.  Prynne  against  the  bishops, 
came  to  reside  in  Boston  between  the  years  1638  and  1641, 
he  was  distrusted  by  men  of  influence  and  authority  be- 
cause of  his  views  in  ecclesiastical  matters.  He  maintained 
the  divine  right  of  Episcopacy  in  a  manuscript  treatise 
which  Dudley,  the  deputy  governor,  declared  erroneous 
1  Gardiner,  "  History  of  England,"  vol.  vii.,  pp.  156,  158. 


FIRST  CHURCH  AT  PORTSMOUTH,  N.  H.  89 

and  dangerous,  and  suggested  to  Winthrop  that  "instead 
of  putinge  it  to  the  presse,  as  hee  desireth,  it  may  rather 
be  putt  into  the  fire,  as  I  desire."  Lechford  himself  owned 
that  he  meddled  too  much  with  controversies  concerning 
matters  of  church  government  and  the  Hke,  and  he  found 
it  expedient  to  return  to  England. 

It  was  in  1622  that  Gorges,  in  connection  with  John 
Mason,  obtained  a  grant  of  territory  between  the  Merri- 
mac  and  Kennebec  rivers,  extending  to  the  river  of 
Canada  which  they  called  Laconia.  Settlements  were 
made  at  Portsmouth  and  Dover ;  and  Conant,  Lyford,  and 
Oldham,  who  had  become  discontented  at  Plymouth,  joined 
them,  and  constituted  here  a  church  settlement.  There 
was  a  clergyman  of  the  church  connected  with  these  early 
settlements  in  New  Hampshire,  and  a  chapel  and  parson- 
age existed  in  Portsmouth  in  1640.  Mason,  a  devout  and 
earnest  churchman,  had  sent  over  communion-plate  and 
service-books,  but  the  parsonage  house  and  chapel  had 
been  erected  as  a  free  gift  by  the  inhabitants.  Mr.  Rich- 
ard Gibson  was  the  first  parson  in  the  parsonage.  The 
settlements  passed  under  the  authority  of  Massachusetts 
in  1 64 1.  Mr.  Gibson  wrote  an  open  letter,  opposing  the 
title  of  Massachusetts  to  these  parts.  He  was  brought  to 
book  for  this  conduct,  and,  acknowledging  his  fault,  was 
discharged  without  fine  or  punishment,  on  condition  of  his 
departing  from  the  country  in  a  few  days.  He  was  a  good 
scholar  and  highly  esteemed  as  a  gospel  minister,  and  had 
probably  come  as  early  as  1636,  at  which  time  Sir  Fernando 
Gorges,  by  authority  of  a  royal  grant,  organized  the  first 
government  within  the  limits  of  the  present  State  of  Maine. 
This  grant  provided  for  the  establishment  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  gave  to  the  patentee  the  nomination  of 
the  ministers  of  all  churches  and  chapels  which  might 
be  built  in  the  province.     Gibson  was  succeeded  by  the 


go  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  iv. 

Rev.  Robert  Jordan,  so  far  as  the  work  in  Maine  was  con- 
cerned. 

The  church  interest  in  New  Hampshire  had  now  faded 
out;  but  Jordan  labored  earnestly  and  with  success  at 
Scarboro,  at  Casco  (now  Portland),  and  at  Saco.  Maine 
was  considered  distinctively  Episcopalian,  and  was  in- 
tended as  a  rival  to  her  Puritan  neighbors.  In  1652 
Massachusetts  claimed  Maine  as  within  the  scope  of  the 
great  charter  of  the  Bay  Company.  The  claim  was  sus- 
tained, the  religious  liberty  of  the  Episcopalians  being 
left  unharmed.  The  preponderant  influence,  however,  was 
against  them.  Jordan  married  the  only  daughter  of  John 
Winter,  and  through  her  inheritance  became  one  of  the 
wealthiest  men  of  the  colony.  He  used  his  influence  and 
station  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  Massachusetts.  He 
lived  in  Falmouth  thirty-one  years,  preaching  and  admin- 
istering the  sacraments  according  to  the  usage  of  the  Church 
of  England,  except  when  silenced  by  the  Puritan  authori- 
ties of  Massachusetts.  He  was  at  times  imprisoned  for 
baptizing  children  and  using  the  marriage  service.  Exas- 
perated at  such  treatment,  and  impatient  of  the  Puritan 
rule,  he  became  bitter  in  his  speech  against  the  magistrates 
and  ministers  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  This  temper,  together 
with  his  wealth,  moderated  his  zeal  in  his  profession,  and  he 
is  said  to  have  become  greatly  absorbed  in  secular  afi'airs. 
After  his  house  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Indians  he 
took  refuge  in  Great  Island  (now  New  Castle),  near  Ports- 
mouth, N.  H.  Here  he  died,  in  his  sixty-eighth  year,  in 
1679.  After  his  death  there  is  no  record  of  any  Episcopal 
clergyman  in  Maine  until  1756,  and  with  him  ended  for 
years  the  church's  possession  of  the  coasts  of  Maine  and 
New  Hampshire.  At  the  time  of  Jordan's  death  he  was 
the  only  Episcopal  minister  in  all  New  England. 

The  whole  subject  of  the  treatment  of  other  religious 


GENESIS   OF   THE  PURITANS.  9 1 

bodies  by  the  Puritans,  especially  of  the  members  of  the 
English  Church,  finds  its  explanation  in  the  circumstances 
out  of  which  their  special  movement  arose.  Before  the 
Reformation  the  religious  sympathies  of  men  had  been 
divorced,  by  reason  of  the  corruption  of  those  in  author- 
ity, from  that  external  organization  which  had  been  framed 
especially  to  foster  them.^  Outward  institutions,  which 
were  intended  to  be  signs  and  means  of  Christ's  presence 
to  the  soul,  were  put  in  the  place  of  Him ;  and  the  organ- 
ization intended  to  quicken  and  direct  men's  souls  was 
changed  into  a  set  of  lifeless  observances.  When,  through 
the  influence  of  Wycliffe,  men  learned  that  they  had  souls 
for  which  they  must  themselves  care,  they  began  to  feel 
the  need  of  personal  religion.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Ref- 
ormation this  ferment  for  individual  reformation  spread 
through  the  nation.  The  need  of  support  and  sympathy, 
for  which  the  church,  as  the  communion  of  saints,  provides, 
was  forgotten  in  the  first  fever-heat  which  waited  upon 
the  discovery  of  individual  responsibility  and  personal 
salvation.  The  party  in  the  Reformed  English  Church 
who  especially  emphasized  individual  religion  became 
known  as  Puritans.  "  The  Puritan  founders  of  Massachu- 
setts had  at  home  belonged  to  the  Established  Church. 
Their  ministers  were  Episcopalians  until  the  policy  of  Laud 
was  brought  to  bear  against  them.  They  believed  firmly 
in  a  union  of  church  and  state,  and  in  the  suppression  of 
all  schisms,  provided  theirs  were  the  church,  and  that  the 
suppression  of  schism  were  trusted  to  their  hands."  -  They 
strove  for  their  especial  tenets  with  the  earnestness  of  men 
who  felt  that  they  had  a  great  reality  at  stake.  The  old 
feeling  of  hostility  to  Rome  was  awakened   toward   the 

1  See  Wilberforce,  "  History  of  the  American  Churchy"  chap,  iii.,  pp. 
45-50,  from  which  the  above  is  largely  quoted. 

2  Douglas  Campbell,  "  The  Puritan  in  Holland,  England,  and  America," 
vol.  ii.,  p.  413. 


92  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  iv. 

Established  Church.  There  was  no  idea  or  true  compre- 
hension of  toleration  in  the  mind  of  any  party  in  the  church. 
The  Puritans  were  forced  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  be  present 
at  their  parish  church.  The  Parliament  under  Cromwell 
sentenced  to  one  year's  imprisonment  any  one  who  for  the 
third  time  made  use  publicly  or  privately  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer. 

In  the  reigns  of  EHzabeth  and  James  I.  the  Puritans 
strove  for  mastery  in  vain.  The  law  enforced  conformity. 
Finding  it  impossible  to  follow  out  their  convictions  in  their 
native  land,  they  were  content  to  forsake  it  rather  than  to 
violate  what  they  deemed  the  dictates  of  conscience.  Those 
who  afterward  became  the  Plymouth  Colony  first  migrated 
to  Holland  ;  but  for  many  reasons  they  determined  to  plant 
and  maintain  the  purity  of  the  faith  in  a  settlement  of  their 
own  on  the  newly  discovered  continent  of  America.  When, 
afterward,  the  Puritan  element  who  were  not  Separatists, 
but  nonconforming  members  of  the  Church  of  England, 
came  with  Winthrop  to  found  the" colony  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  they  said  :  "  We  esteem  it  an  honor  to  call  the  Church 
of  England,  from  whence  we  rise,  our  dear  mother,  and  can- 
not part  from  our  native  land,  where  she  specially  resides, 
without  much  sadness  of  heart  and  many  tears  in  our  eyes. 
For,  acknowledging  that  such  hope  and  part  as  we  have 
obtained  in  the  common  salvation  we  have  received  in  her 
bosom  and  sucked  it  from  her  breasts,  we  leave  it  not, 
therefore,  as  loathing  that  milk  wherewith  we  were  nour- 
ished there  ;  but,  blessing  God  for  parentage  and  education 
as  members  of  the  same  body,  shall  always  rejoice  in  her 
good  and  unfeignedly  grieve  for  any  sorrow  that  shall  ever 
betide  her,  and  while  we  have  breath  sincerely  desire  and 
endeavor  the  continuance  and  abundance  of  her  welfare, 
with  the  enlargement  of  her  bounds  in  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  Jesus."     They  desired  simply  what  they  esteemed 


PURITAN  REJECTION  OF  EPISCOPACY.  93 

a  purer  form  of  worship  within  the  church,  the  aboHtion 
of  what  they  regarded  as  superstitious  usages,  and  the 
awakening  of  the  clergy  to  a  more  earnest  rehgious  life 
and  teaching.  Their  speedy  lapse  into  a  different  form  of 
church  government  and  different  methods  of  worship  from 
the  Established  Church  has  led  to  the  implication  of  in- 
sincerity in  the  foregoing  expressions  of  attachment  and 
loyalty  to  her.  But  it  must  in  justice  be  remembered 
that  to  them  the  chief  notes  of  the  church  were  not  the 
form  of  ecclesiastical  organization  nor  the  structure  of  the 
liturgy.  They  were  the  body  of  doctrine  and  the  main- 
tenance of  the  truth  and  life  of  the  gospel.  They  empha- 
sized the  theological  and  religious  elements,  which  in  their 
eyes  comprised  the  essence  of  its  life,  and  claimed  that  the 
form  of  church  government  was  a  matter  of  indifference  and 
could  be  lawfully  regulated  by  the  state.  Therefore,  accord- 
ing to  their  ideas,  they  were  not  departing  from  the  essence 
of  the  church  by  departing  from  its  outer  forms  of  govern- 
ment and  worship  while  they  clung  to  the  substance  of  its 
doctrine  and  the  religious  aim  of  its  organization.  When 
once  they  had  begun  their  own  ecclesiastical  life  and  wor- 
ship under  simpler  forms  than  those  which  were  associated 
with  the  oppression  which  they  had  suffered,  and  to  escape 
which  they  emigrated  from  the  mother-country,  they  were 
firm  in  their  determination  to  resist  any  encroachment  on 
their  rights,  and  to  discourage  the  presence  of  those  who 
might  revive  the  old  proscription.  This  is  the  explanation 
of  their  treatment  of  individuals  which  we  have  sketched ; 
and  this  is  also  the  reason  why  the  life  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  did  not  really  begin  in  New  England  until  after  the 
charter  of  the  colony  had  been  abrogated  and  Massachu- 
setts became  a  royal  province. 

It  was  in  May,  1686,  that  the  frigate  "  Rose,"  bringing 
the  king's  commission  appointing  Joseph  Dudley  as  pres- 


94  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  iv. 

ident  of  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Maine,  and  the 
king's  provinces,  brought  also  the  Rev.  Robert  Rat- 
cHffe,  M.A.,  who  had  been  appointed  to  inaugurate  the 
services  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Boston.  Immediately- 
after  his  arri\'al  he  preached  in  the  town  house,  and  read 
Common  Prayer  in  his  surplice,  attracting  by  the  novelty 
a  large  audience.  A  month  after  his  arrival,  on  the  15th 
of  June,  "  the  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  by 
law  established,"  assembled  for  organization.  Provision 
was  made  for  the  minister's  salary,  which  was  fixed  at  fifty 
pounds  per  annum,  and  for  the  constant  conduct  of  divine 
worship.  The  setting  up  of  this  church  was  considered  a 
great  affront  by  followers  of  the  Standing  Order.  These 
resisted  all  attempts  to  appropriate  one  of  the  three  Boston 
churches  for  the  use  of  the  Church  of  England,  which 
found  itself  possessed  of  no  exclusive  rights  and  privileges 
here.  A  considerable  number  were,  however,  attached  to 
it,  and  as  many  as  four  hundred  were  said  to  be  daily 
frequenters  of  the  church. 

The  advent  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  December  20,  1686, 
as  the  first  royal  governor  of  the  province,  gave  a  some- 
what different  aspect  to  affairs.  An  application  for  the  use 
of  one  of  the  meeting-houses  for  the  church,  at  a  time  when 
it  would  not  interfere  with  the  rights  of  the  original  pro- 
prietors, was  resisted  by  the  ministers  of  the  town,  chief 
among  whom  were  the  Rev.  Thomas  Allen  of  the  First 
Church,  the  Revs.  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather,  father  and 
son,  of  the  Second  Church,  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Willard 
of  the  South  Meeting-house,  all  men  of  great  distinction. 
However,  on  Good  Friday,  1687,  the  governor  had  service 
performed  in  the  South  Meeting-house,  and  again  on 
Easter  Sunday,  when  the  service,  by  reason  of  the  sacra- 
ment and  the  long  sermon,  was  protracted  beyond  the 
hour  for  the  service  of  the  proprietors  of  the  house.     Such 


BUILDING    OF  KING'S   CHAPEL.  95 

difficulties  continued  from  time  to  time  until  the  first 
King's  Chapel  was  erected  on  the  site  which  the  present 
edifice  now  occupies.  This  church  was  begun  in  the 
latter  part  of  1688,  and  was  erected  by  the  gifts  of  a  hun- 
dred subscribers.  Before  it  could  be  occupied  the  news  of 
the  landing  of  William  of  Orange  at  Torbay  arrived,  about 
Easter,  1689.  This  was  the  occasion  of  a  revolt  against 
Andros.  The  royal  authority  was  overthrown,  and  the 
church  suffered  with  the  crown.  Ratcliffe,  the  rector,  es- 
caped imprisonment,  though  he  was  sent  to  England.  He 
returned,  however,  and  opened  King's  Chapel,  for  the  first 
time,  June  30,  1689,  his  successor,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Miles, 
being  present  with  him. 

In  the  midst  of  the  excitement  attending  Andros's  ad- 
ministration, Increase  Mather  published  a  pamphlet  entitled 
"  The  Unlawfulness  of  Common  Prayer  Worship,"  in  which 
he  asserted  that  it  was  apostasy,  in  this  age  of  light,  to 
countenance  or  comply  with  the  Common  Prayer  Book ; 
and  the  Puritan  preachers  generally  denounced  the  great 
sin  of  formalism  in  Christian  worship.  The  church,  how- 
ever, was  finished  and  furnished  thoroughly.  In  1696  the 
rector  returned  from  England,  bringing  much  communion- 
plate  and  other  handsome  furnishings  for  the  church  as  a 
present  from  the  king  and  queen.  It  was  in  1698-99  that 
the  Rev.  Christopher  Bridge  became  an  assistant  minister  of 
the  chapel.  And  thus  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
found  the  church  firmly  established  in  New  England's  capital. 

The  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  marks  a  new 
era  in  the  history  of  the  Episcopal  Church  throughout  all 
the  provinces;  for  it  was  now  that  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  (which  held 
its  first  meeting  at  Lambeth  Palace  on  the  27th  of  June, 
1 701)  began  its  exertions,  so  numerous,  so  generous,  and 
so  long  continued,  for  the  support  and  propagation  of  the 


96  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  iv. 

English  Church  in  America.  One  of  its  first  acts  was  to 
appoint  a  travehng  missionary,  commissioning  him  to  ex- 
plore the  whole  field  of  the  American  colonies  in  its  length 
and  breadth,  in  order  to  discover  the  best  points  for  in- 
augurating church  work.  This  act  was  in  response  to  the 
"  Memorial  on  the  State  of  the  Church,"  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Bray,  commissary  of  Maryland.  In  fact,  the  society  had 
itself  grown  out  of  the  eflforts  made  by  Commissary  Bray 
to  supply  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  American  plantations. 
Through  its  labors  the  services  and  sacraments  of  the 
church  were  again  administered  in  New  England,  after 
years  of  banishment  and  consequent  disuse.  It  appears 
that  outside  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  there  were  not  half  a  dozen  clergy- 
men of  the  church  in  the  colonies  of  North  America,  and 
that  the  whole  number  of  her  ministers,  from  Maine  to 
Carolina,  was  less  than  fifty.  The  need,  therefore,  of  rein- 
forcement both  of  men  and  means  was  most  urgent.  This 
the  society  now  undertook  to  supply.  The  missionary  ap- 
pointed for  this  religious  survey  of  the  colonies  was  the  Rev. 
George  Keith,  a  Scotchman  who  had  been  converted  from 
the  Presbyterians  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Quakers,  and  who 
first  came  to  America  in  1682.  He  shortly  after  moved  to 
Philadelphia  to  take  charge  of  the  Friends'  public  school. 
After  being  a  rather  conspicuous  controversialist  on  be- 
half of  the  Quakers,  he  became  converted  to  the  Church 
of  England,  and  he  entered  its  ministry  in  i  700.  He  was 
commended  by  Dr.  Bray  to  the  society,  who  appointed 
him  its  first  traveling  missionary,  associating  with  him  the 
Rev.  Patrick  Gordon  as  a  fellow- itinerant.  They  arrived 
in  Boston  June,  1702.  The  chaplain  of  the  vessel,  the 
"  Centurion,"  the  Rev.  John  Talbot,  became  so  interested 
in  the  mission  of  Keith  as  to  devote  himself  also  to  the 
mission  work. 


MISSION  OF  KEITH  AND    TALBOT.  97 

The  clergy  of  King's  Chapel,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Miles 
and  Bridge,  welcomed  these  three  brethren  heartily ;  and 
Keith,  true  to  his  old  character,  at  once  preached  a  sermon 
on  the  claims  of  the  English  Church,  which  involved  him 
in  a  speedy  controversy  with  Dr.  Increase  Mather.  Gor- 
don died  soon  after  his  arrival  in  Boston ;  and  Keith  and 
Talbot  together  began  in  July  their  missionary  exploration, 
which  occupied  two  years.  They  visited  the  coasts  of  New 
England,  and  the  Puritan  ministers  gave  countenance  to 
their  assaults  upon  Quakerism.  In  Rhode  Island,  where 
so  many  Quakers  resided,  they  proclaimed  with  great  vigor 
the  faith  of  the  Church  of  England.  They  were  counte- 
nanced in  Connecticut  by  Saltonstall  and  other  distin- 
guished Puritan  ministers,  who  were  equally  opposed  to 
Quakers  with  themselves.  They  traversed  Long  Island, 
visited  New  York,  labored  in  New  Jersey,  especially  at 
Burlington,  at  which  place,  as  everywhere  in  New  Jersey, 
they  received  marked  attention  from  the  leading  officers 
of  the  crown.  They  visited  Philadelphia,  where  they  were 
heartily  welcomed  by  late  converts  from  Quakerism ;  and 
the  clergy  of  New  York  assembled  to  meet  them,  and  drew 
up  an  account  of  the  state  of  the  church  in  Pennsylvania, 
East  and  West  Jersey,  and  New  York.  Keith  was  also 
especially  busy  in  Philadelphia  and  the  towns  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  also  in  Delaware ;  and  he  and  Talbot  were 
entertained  by  Colonel  Nicholson,  governor  of  Virginia, 
at  Williamsburg.  Tiiey  penetrated  into  North  Carolina, 
and  afterward  proceeded  to  Maryland,  whence,  after  spend- 
ing several  weeks,  they  returned  to  Philadelphia.  Many 
converts  were  made  during  these  journeys.  Talbot  was 
appointed  to  the  charge  of  the  church  in  Burlington;  and 
Keith,  after  revisiting  Maryland  and  Virginia,  returned  to 
England.  He  publislied  a  "  Journal  of  Travels  from  New 
Hampshire  to  Caratuck."     Talbot,  writing  from  Philadel- 


98  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  iv. 

phia  September  i,  1703,  says  :  "  We  have  gathered  several 
hundreds  together  for  the  Church  of  England.  Churches 
are  going  up  amain  where  there  were  never  any  before. 
In  all  places  where  we  arrive  we  find  a  great  ripeness  and 
inclination  among  all  sorts  of  people  to  embrace  the  gos- 
pel." Their  mission,  by  the  spirit  which  it  inspired,  as 
well  as  by  the  converts  which  they  made  and  the  churches 
which  they  established,  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America.  Still 
for  long  years  it  existed  only  in  the  form  of  isolated  con- 
gregations; and  deprived  of  the  episcopate,  the  center  of 
its  organization  and  authority,  it  could  only  lead  a  maimed 
and  disjointed  life.  The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel  did  all  that  it  could  to  maintain  the  separate 
congregations,  both  by  sending  out  missionaries  and  by 
supporting  the  native  ministry,  which  from  time  to  time 
received  orders  from  the  hands  of  the  Bishop  of  London. 
Far  different  was  the  quality  of  those  whom  they  sent  and 
supported  from  that  of  those  who  had  come  out  more  or 
less  as  clerical  adventurers  to  the  colonies  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia,  where  the  church  was  recognized  by  the  govern- 
ment, and  in  a  measure  established.  But  no  efforts  of  any 
society  could  supply  the  lack  of  a  bishop's  authority  and 
oversight;  and  the  history  of  the  church  until  the  time 
that  an  episcopate  was  received,  after  the  Revolutionary 
War,  is  the  history  of  an  organization  maimed  and  incom- 
plete. 

There  was  great  activity,  however,  among  its  individual 
members,  and  there  was  much  controversy  between  its 
advocates  and  those  of  the  Standing  Order,  whom  they 
antagonized.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these  con- 
troversies occurred  in  Boston,  shortly  after  the  English 
Church  had  obtained  its  permanent  footing  there.  John 
Checkley,  who  was  born  in  Boston  in  1680,  was  educated 


CONTROVERSIES   OF  JOHN  CHECKLEY.  99 

in  part  abroad,  and  on  returning  to  his  native  land  became 
the  most  noted  controversialist  on  the  side  of  the  church 
in  his  day.  To  his  learning  he  added  the  endowments  of 
wit  and  humor  to  a  great  degree.  He  began  his  contro- 
versial writings  by  a  tract  concerning  election  and  predes- 
tination. But  what  called  him  into  special  prominence 
was  the  publication  of  an  edition  of  Leslie's  "  Short 
Method  with  Deists,"  to  which  was  added  "  A  Discourse 
Concerning  Episcopacy,"  also  by  Leslie,  with  certain  com- 
ments by  Checkley,  applying  the  arguments  especially  to 
the  case  of  the  New  England  Lidependents.  The  reflec- 
tions upon  the  orders  of  New  England  ministers  and  the 
validity  of  their  sacraments  were  very  distinct  and  very 
severe,  and  constituted  the  most  pungent  attack  which 
had  been  made  on  the  ecclesiastical  authority  of  the  Puri- 
tan colony.  This  publication  produced  a  most  profound 
sensation.  It  was  universally  discussed,  and  was  pro- 
ceeded against  as  a  scandalous  libel,  "  not  only  reflecting 
on  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  established  in  this  province, 
and  denouncing  their  sacred  function  and  the  holy  ordina- 
tions of  religion  as  administered  by  them,  but  also  sundry 
vile  insinuations  against  his  Majesty's  rightful  and  lawful 
authority  and  the  constitution  of  the  government  of  Great 
Britain."  The  judges,  however,  declared  from  the  bench 
that  Checkley  was  not  to  be  tried  for  writing  anything 
in  defense  of  England  and  the  Episcopacy ;  and  the 
attorney-general  was  ordered  to  confine  his  attention  to 
the  clauses  of  the  book  supposed  to  reflect  on  the  govern- 
ment. 

Checkley  was  condemned  ;  but  on  appeal  he  spoke  in 
his  own  defense,  in  which  he  maintained,  first,  that  no 
provincial  assembly  could  by  right  or  in  fact  establish 
either  the  Presbyterian  or  Congregational  systems  so  as  to 
constitute  the  Episcopal  churches  dissenters;  second,  that, 


lOO  PROTESTANr  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  iv. 

by  the  just  and  true  construction  of  the  laws  of  that  very 
province,  the  Church  of  England  was  established  there; 
and  third,  that,  by  the  laws  of  England,  the  Church  of 
England  was  established  in  New  England,  and  no  other  was 
positively  established  in  aH  his  Majesty's  plantations.  The 
previous  excitement  was  immensely  intensified  by  a  speech 
unlike  any  ever  previously  made  to  a  New  England  audi- 
ence. The  jury  ordered  the  conditional  verdict  that,  "  if 
this  book  be  a  false  and  scandalous  libel,  then  we  find  the 
said  Checkley  guilty  of  all  and  every  part  of  the  indict- 
ment (excepting  the  political  part  of  it) ;  but  if  the  said 
book  containing  the  '  Discourse  Concerning  Episcopacy  ' 
be  not  a  false  and  scandalous  libel,  then  we  find  him  not 
guilty."  The  justices  did  not  share  the  doubts  of  the  jury, 
and  condemned  Checkley  as  guilty  of  publishing  and  sell- 
ing a  false  and  scandalous  libel,  and  sentenced  him  to 
pay  the  sum  of  a  hundred  pounds.  Checkley  was  by  no 
means  silenced  by  this  finding.  He  at  once  published  two 
pamphlets,  one  called  "  A  Modest  Proof  of  the  Order  and 
Government  Settled  by  Christ  and  His  Apostles  in  the 
Church  "  ;  the  other,  an  octavo  of  sixteen  pages,  entitled 
"  A  Discourse  Showing  who  is  a  True  Pastor  of  the 
Church  of  Christ."  ^ 

Even  the  assistant  rector  of  King's  Chapel,  Rev.  Henry 
Harris,  was  angry  at  Checkley's  mode  of  disputation,  and 
sought  to  prejudice  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.)  against 
him,  and  doubtless  deferred  his  taking  orders.    These  pub- 

1  As  an  illustration  of  Checkley's  trenchant  humor,  we  may  instance  the 
following:  "  A  Specimen  of  a  True  Dissenting  Catechism,"  appended  to  the 
"  Discourse,"  and  also  to  a  second  edition  of  the  "  Speech." 

"Question.  What  don't  the  dissenters  in  their  public  worship  make  use  of 
the  creeds? 

"A7iszver.  Why?  Because  they  are  not  set  down  word  for  word  in  the 
Bible. 

"Question.  Well,  but  why  don't  the  dissenters  in  their  public  worship 
make  use  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  ? 

"Anszae/:   Oh,  because  that  is  set  down  word  for  word  in  the  Bible." 


BUILDING    OF  CHRIST  CHURCH,  BOSTON.  lOI 

lications  gave  rise  to  many  answering  pamphlets  by  the 
Congregational  clergy.  Foxcroft,  minister  of  the  First 
Church;  Wigglesworth,  a  Cambridge  divinity  professor ; 
Dickinson,  afterward  first  president  of  the  College  of  New 
Jersey  ;  Prince,  a  fellow  of  Harvard  ;  and  Walter,  a  personal 
friend  of  Checkley,  all  published  defenses  of  their  ecclesi- 
astical position.  Checkley  replied  with  vigor,  and  became 
the  most  conspicuous  churchman  in  New  England  of  his 
kind.  He  applied  a  second  time,  in  1728,  for  orders  in  Eng- 
land, but  was  again  repulsed;  at  last,  in  1739,  on  a  third 
visit  abroad,  he  was  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  at 
the  age  of  fifty-nine.  He  was  appointed  to  St.  John's 
Mission,  Providence,  where  he  labored  for  fourteen  years 
for  the  negroes  and  Indians,  as  well  as  for  his  immeciiate 
charge.  Here  he  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-four,  and  is 
buried  beneath  the  present  edifice,  which  has  replaced  his 
humble  chapel,  though  his  grave  is  unmarked. 

In  the  midst  of  this  controversy  the  Episcopal  Church 
continued  to  increase  in  Boston.  On  the  15th  of  April, 
1723,  the  corner-stone  of  Christ  Church  was  laid,  and  on 
the  29th  of  December,  the  same  year,  it  was  opened  for 
worship.  It  still  stands,  the  oldest  house  of  worship,  and 
next  to  the  oldest  public  building,  in  the  city.  It  is  a  fine 
old  edifice,  near  to  the  historic  cemetery  of  Copps  Hill,  at 
the  North  End,  now  a  mere  missionary  district,  but  for 
many  years  the  court  end  of  the  town.  The  brick  walls 
of  the  church  are  two  feet  and  a  half  thick;  its  spire  is  a 
hundred  and  seventy-five  feet  high ;  and  from  its  steeple 
the  lanterns  were  displayed  which  guided  Paul  Revere  in 
his  ride,  on  the  night  of  the  i8th  of  April,  1775,  from 
Boston  to  Concord.  Its  first  rector  was  Dr.  Timothy 
Cutler,  who  had  been  converted  to  Episcopacy  while  rector 
of  Yale  College,  and  who,  resigning  his  position  there, 
went  to  England,  and  was   ordained  in   London,  March, 


I02  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  iv. 

1723.  He  was  appointed  missionary  by  the  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  and  began 
his  rectorship  on  the  24th  of  September,  1723,  continuing 
in  this  office  for  forty-two  years.  Eighty  famiHes  and 
forty  communicants  formed  his  congregation  at  the  begin- 
ning, which  increased  afterward  to  eight  hundred  persons. 
Christ  Church  was  ahvays  aided  during  colonial  times  by 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  who  pre- 
sented it  also  with  a  theological  library.  Numerous  gifts 
of  plate  were  sent  over  to  this  church  from  England;  and 
on  two  of  the  flagons,  the  larger  chalice  and  paten,  and 
the  offertory  basin,  may  be  seen  the  royal  arms,  with  the 
words,  "  The  Gift  of  His  Majesty  King  George  the  Second, 
to  Christ  Church  at  Boston  in  New  England,  at  the  Re- 
quest of  His  Excellency  Governor  Belcher,  1733."  King 
George  also  gave  to  this  church  a  folio  Bible,  one  of  the 
celebrated  Vinegar  Bibles. 

Dr.  Cutler  also  founded  the  church  at  Dedham,  took 
care  of  Christ  Church,  Braintree,  and  preached  frequently 
in  places  where  there  was  no  Episcopal  church.  He  was 
an  indefatigable  worker  and  a  steadfast  advocate  of  the 
church  of  his  adoption.  He  persistently  urged  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  bishop  for  the  American  colonies,  and 
resisted  all  attempts  to  limit  or  encroach  upon  the  rights 
of  the  Church  of  England.  He  died  in  i  765  ;  and  in  1 768 
Dr.  Mather  Byles,  Jr.,  who  had  earlier  been  a  Congrega- 
tional minister  in  Connecticut,  became  the  rector.  The 
church  sent  him  to  England  for  ordination,  and  he  returned 
and  entered  on  his  duties  the  28th  of  September.  He 
found  a  hundred  families  and  fifty  communicants.  Being, 
however,  a  strong  loyalist,  he  resigned  his  charge  at  the 
beginning  of  hostilities  with  the  mother-country,  and  his 
resignation  was  accepted  April  18,  1775,  on  the  evening 
of  which  day  the   signal-lanterns  of  Paul   Revere,  from 


TRINITY  CHURCH,  BOSTON.  I03 

the  church  steeple,  announced  the  beginning  of  the  Rev- 
olution. 

In  the  meantime,  in  1735,  Trinity  Church,  much  larger 
than  Christ  Church,  had  been  built  in  Boston.  This  church 
did  not  receive  aid  from  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.). 
The  proprietors  of  the  pews  were  patrons  and  owners  of 
the  living,  and  elected  their  clergymen  and  presented  them 
to  the  Bishop  of  London  for  their  ordination.  The  church 
has  been  associated  with  many  of  the  most  distinguished 
names  in  Boston.  The  Rev.  Roger  Price,  rector  of  King's 
Chapel  and  commissary  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  laid  the 
corner-stone,  and  held  the  first  services  in  the  completed 
structure  August  15,  1735,  Governor  Belcher  being  pres- 
ent. Mr.  Price  here  established  the  fund  for  the  Price 
Lectures,  which  have  been  held  annually  ever  since.  Rev. 
Addington  Davenport  was  the  first  rector,  and  was  in- 
ducted into  the  rectorship  in  i  740.  Peter  Faneuil  gave  a 
hundred  pounds  to  the  church  toward  the  purchase  of  an 
organ;  and  Governor  Shirley  presented  the  communion- 
plate,  prayer-books,  and  other  articles.  In  i  763  the  heirs 
of  Mr.  Thomas  Greene  established  the  Greene  Foundation, 
giving  five  hundred  pounds  sterling  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  the  services  of  an  assistant  minister;  and  other 
individuals  in  the  parish  contributed  a  like  sum.  On  this 
foundation  many  of  the  distinguished  clergymen  associated 
with  the  parish  have  been  settled  as  assistants.  Among 
them  we  may  mention  Dr.  Parker,  who  afterward  became 
bishop  of  the  diocese  ;  Dr.  Gardiner,  who  afterward  became 
rector,  a  man  of  great  and  general  literary  attainments ; 
Rev.  George  Washington  Doane,  afterward  Bishop  of  New 
Jersey ;  Rev.  John  Henry  Hopkins,  first  Bishop  of  Ver- 
mont ;  Dr.  Jonathan  M.  Wainwright,  who  became  Provis- 
ional Bishop  of  New  York ;  Rev.  Manton  Eastburn,  who, 
on  being  elected   Bishop   of  Massachusetts,   became  the 


I04  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  iv. 

rector  of  Trinity  parish;  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter,  the  pres- 
ent Bishop  of  New  York ;  and  Rev.  Philhps  Brooks,  who, 
after  a  rectorship  of  twenty  years,  was  elected  bishop  of 
the  diocese.  During  the  War  of  the  Revolution  services 
were  held  in  Trinity  Church,  it  being  voted  by  the  vestry 
that  "  Mr.  Parker,  the  present  minister,  be  desired  to  con- 
tinue officiating  in  the  said  church,  and  that  he  be  re- 
quested to  omit  that  part  of  the  liturgy  of  the  church  that 
relates  to  the  king."  After  the  war  and  the  secession  of 
King's  Chapel,  Trinity  became  the  principal  church  in  the 
city.  Thus  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution  there  were 
three  Episcopal  churches  in  Boston. 

Christ  Church,  Cambridge,  was  established  in  1759, 
though  the  church  was  not  opened  until  October,  1761. 
Its  position  was  of  importance  for  the  church,  being  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  Hai-vard  College.  It  was  a 
stately  building  for  the  time,  though  not  large,  and  was 
erected  by  Peter  Harrison,  the  architect  of  the  Redwood 
Library,  Newport,  of  King's  Chapel,  Boston,  and  of  Christ 
Church.  Mr.  Apthorp  was  the  rector,  a  man  of  distin- 
guished abiHties,  extensive  learning,  and  fine  character. 
He  defended  in  print  the  proceedings  of  the  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  founding  these  mission- 
ary churches,  which  met  with  a  sharp  reply  from  the 
Rev.  Jonathan  Mayhew,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the  West  Church, 
Boston.  To  this  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  published 
a  reply  in  1764,  which  Dr.  Mayhew  answered,  and  to 
this  Mr.  Apthorp  replied  after  he  had  withdrawn  to  Eng- 
land in  1765.  This  controversy  is  specially  mentioned  be- 
cause it  probably  furnished  the  reason  for  Mr.  Apthorp's 
remaining  in  England.  He  was  suspected  and  accused  of 
being  desirous  of  being  made  bishop ;  and  the  handsome 
house  which  he  had  erected  in  Cambridge  was  said,  in  the 
derisive  sarcasm  of  the  day,  to  have  been  designed  for  the 


CHRIST  CHURCH,   CAMBRIDGE.  105 

"palace  of  one  of  the  humble  successors  of  the  apostles." 
Though  Mr.  Apthorp  remained  in  Europe,  the  church  was 
supplied  with  services  by  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.) 
until  the  breaking  out  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  when 
it  was  occupied,  as  were  also  the  college  buildings  and 
many  of  the  principal  residences  of  Cambridge,  as  barracks 
for  the  troops.  On  Mrs.  Washington's  arrival  in  Cam- 
bridge, however,  in  December,  1775,  a  service,  at  her 
request,  was  held  in  the  church  on  the  last  day  of  the 
year.  From  that  time  on,  for  fifteen  years,  the  building 
remained  neglected,  deserted,  and  dilapidated.  It  was 
not  opened  again  for  worship  until  1790.  It  was  repaired 
and  placed  in  its  present  condition  in  the  year  1825.  In 
the  long  course  of  its  history  it  has  had  as  rectors,  assist- 
ants, or  lay  readers  many  who  have  become  prominent  in 
the  history  of  the  church.  Among  those  who  have  been 
connected  with  it  who  have  become  bishops  we  may  note 
specially  Dehon  of  South  Carolina,  Wainwright  of  New 
York,  Vail  of  Kansas,  Howe  of  central  Pennsylvania, 
Williams  of  Connecticut,  and  Southgate,  missionary  bishop 
to  Turkey.  Everywhere  save  in  Boston  the  church  lan- 
guished during  the  war,  and  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution 
there  were  but  four  Episcopal  ministers  in  Massachusetts 
and  only  six  in  all  New  England. 

RJwde  Island. 

The  Episcopal  Church  was  established  first  in  Rhode 
Island  at  Newport,  in  1698.  It  was  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  Sir  Francis  Nicholson,  who  had  been  lieuten- 
ant-governor of  New  York  under  Sir  Edmund  Andros, 
afterward  governor  of  Virginia,  and  who  was  at  that  time 
governor  of  Maryland.  In  1 702  Trinity  Church  was 
begun  there,  and  the  church  edifice  erected.     The  Earl  of 


T06  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  iv. 

Belmont,  governor  of  Massachusetts,  applied  for  a  mis- 
sionary to  the  lords  of  the  Council  of  Trades  and  Planta- 
tions;  and  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.)  sent  out  the 
Rev.  James  Honeyman,  with  an  appropriation  of  seventy 
pounds  a  year.  It  was  in  i  704  that  he  began  his  minis- 
trations, and  under  his  ministry  the  church  grew,  so  that 
in  1726  a  more  spacious  building  was  erected  in  the  place 
of  the  original  church.  Except  for  its  enlargement  in 
length,  made  in  1772,  the  church  remains  unaltered  to  the 
present  day ;  so  that,  in  its  appearance  and  appointments, 
we  now  see  in  Trinity  Church,  Newport,  a  genuine  speci- 
men of  an  English  church  of  a  hundred  and  seventy  years 
ago.  Mr.  Honeyman  proved  a  most  devoted  and  inde- 
fatigable rector.  He  was  kind-hearted  and  conciliatory, 
and  "  lived  on  good  terms  with  the  other  religious  per- 
suasions, all  of  which  he  embraced  with  the  arms  of 
charity." 

As  early  as  the  year  1 7 1 3  the  wardens  and  vestry  of 
Trinity  Church  petitioned  the  queen  for  the  establishment 
of  bishops  in  America,  "  setting  forth  the  great  benefit 
that  would  result  to  the  church  from  such  a  measure." 
■It  was  during  the  rectorship  of  Mr.  Honeyman  that  Dean 
Berkeley  visited  Rhode  Island,  in  1729,  and  resided  for 
more  than  two  years  in  the  neighborhood  of  Newport. 
The  announcement  of  his  arrival  was  made  to  Mr.  Honey- 
man while  in  the  pulpit  on  a  saint's  day.  He  immediately 
dismissed  the  congregation  with  the  benediction,  and  they 
all  repaired  to  the  wharf  to  receive  the  dean  and  his 
friends.  Of  this  visit  of  Dean  Berkeley  to  America,  and 
its  consequences,  further  reference  will  be  made  hereafter. 
It  may  be  here  noted,  however,  that  during  his  residence 
in  Rhode  Island  he  frequently  preached  in  Trinity  Church, 
and  attracted  large  congregations.  "He  was  of  great  ser- 
vice in  forwarding  its  interests.      On  his  return  to  England, 


THE  NARRAGANSETT  CHURCH.  IO7 

in  I  73 1,  he  sent  as  a  gift  to  the  church  the  organ  which  is 
still  to  be  seen  there,  with  its  gilded  crown  flanked  by  two 
miters.  One  of  his  children  is  buried  in  the  churchyard. 
Mr.  Honeyman  continued  in  office  for  nearly  fifty  years, 
dying  of  extreme  old  age  in  i  750.  The  Venerable  Society 
(S.  P.  G.)  continued  its  support  without  abatement  until 
1752,  when  a  reduction  of  twenty  pounds  was  made  in 
the  stipend.  Newport  at  this  time  was  one  of  the  richest 
and  most  flourishing  towns  on  the  seacoast,  and  the  re- 
duction was  justifiable.  It  was  not  until  a  year  or  two 
before  the  Revolution  that  the  society  withdrew  its  sup- 
port altogether. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  bay,  on  the  Narragansett 
shore,  many  respectable  and  wealthy  families  had  taken 
up  their  abode  as  early  as  1670,  and  in  1707  what  is  now 
known  as  St.  Paul's  Church,  Kingston,  but  which  was  long 
known  as  the  Narragansett  Church,  was  erected.  It  is 
supposed  to  be  the  oldest  Episcopal  church  still  standing 
in  the  northern  part  of  the  United  States.  It  was  removed 
five  miles  south,  to  its  present  position,  in  the  year  1800. 
Occasional  services  are  held  in  the  old  building  still.  It 
is  carefully  protected  from  decay  ;  and  no  changes  have 
been  made  in  it,  except  that  the  chancel,  formerly  on  the 
east  side,  has  been  removed  to  the  north.  The  original 
burying-ground  on  the  old  site  of  the  church  is  still  pre- 
served, and  in  it  are  buried  several  distinguished  clergy- 
men who  officiated  from  time  to  time.  Among  them  were 
Dr.  McSparran,  who  became  rector  in  1721,  and  was  the 
most  conspicuous  clergyman  sent  to  Rhode  Island  by  the 
society  in  England,  and  who  was  the  author  of  a  work  on 
the  colonies  entitled  "  America  Dissected  "  ;  also  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Fayerweather,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  who  succeeded 
Dr.  McSparran  in  the  rectorship ;  and  the  Rev.  William 
Smith,  who  composed  the  office  for  the  "  Institution  of 


I08  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  iv. 

Ministers  into  Parishes  or  Churches"  contained  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer.  He  did  more  than  any  one  else  to 
introduce  chanting  into  the  services  of  the  church.  A 
massive  granite  cross  has  been  placed  on  the  spot  once 
occupied  by  the  chancel  of  the  church,  in  memory  of 
Dr.  McSparran. 

In  the  days  of  Dr.  McSparran,  Narragansett  County 
was  noted  for  its  extensive  plantations,  its  retinues  of 
slaves,  and  its  profuse  hospitality.  It  was  more  like  a 
Southern  than  a  Northern  settlement  in  these  respects. 
The  relative  strength  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  these 
regions,  and  its  general  prosperity,  compared,  on  the 
whole,  favorably  with  other  parts  of  the  country ;  for 
although  it  received  no  aid  from  the  local  government,  as 
it  did  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  it  was  not  called  to  en- 
counter the  legalized  opposition  with  which  it  was  assailed 
in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  The  principle  of  relig- 
ious liberty,  upon  the  basis  of  which  the  State  was  founded, 
and  which  was  never  violated,  left  the  field  open  for  all 
Christian  denominations  to  contend  on  a  fair  and  equal 
footing. 

The  society  of  the  day  was  refined  and  well  informed. 
Tutors  were  imported,  and  employed  in  the  home  for 
the  instruction  of  the  children,  who  were  afterward  placed 
in  the  families  of  learned  clergymen.  Dr.  McSparran  re- 
ceived young  gentlemen  into  his  home  for  instruction. 
President  Clapp,  of  Yale  College,  completed  his  education 
under  him.  Dr.  Checkley,  whom  we  have  previously 
mentioned  in  connection  with  the  church  in  Boston,  edu- 
cated several  sons  of  the  Narragansett  families.  Among 
these  were  many  whose  names  are  still  remembered  in 
Rhode  Island,  such  as  the  Gardiners,  Phillipses,  Balfours, 
Babcocks,  Updikes,  Hazards,  Browns,  Brentons,  and  others. 
These   came   together  at  church   on  a  Sunday   morning, 


CHURCH  LIFE  IN  RHODE  ISLAND.  109 

arrayed  in  the  brilliant  costumes  of  their  times,  and  much 
state  and  ceremony  was  observed  in  the  seating  of  the  con- 
gregation and  in  the  conduct  of  the  worship. 

There  were  no  carriages  of  any  consequence  owned  in 
Narragansett.  The  narrow  roads  were  little  fitted  for 
their  use;  so  that  almost  everybody  came  to  church  on 
horseback,  the  ladies  riding  on  pillions  behind  the  gentle- 
men. The  choir  sang  one  of  the  metrical  psalms  of  Tate 
and  Brady,  chanting  being  as  yet  unknown,  and  somewhat 
dreaded,  as  having  a  flavor  of  popery.  The  minister, 
ascending  the  high  pulpit,  preached  in  a  black  gown  and 
bands,  wearing  silk  gloves.  The  congregation  presented 
a  great  contrast  in  its  attire  to  the  drab  and  brown  so 
prevalent  in  the  assemblies  of  the  Quakers,  who  were  the 
prevailing  sect  in  the  colony.  Gay  cavaliers  in  scarlet 
coats  would  be  seated  by  richly  dressed  ladies  such  as 
we  see  portrayed  on  the  canvases  of  Smibert  and  Copley. 
The  negro  servants  would  be  massed  in  the  galleries,  and 
the  whole  appearance  of  things  was  that  of  an  aristocratic 
community.  This  state  of  society,  indeed,  supported  by 
slavery,  produced  a  habit  of  festivity  and  even  of  dissipa- 
tion, the  natural  result  of  wealth  and  leisure.  At  various 
periods  of  the  year  festivities  would  be  held  which  would 
sometimes  continue  for  days.  At  Christmas  twelve  days 
were  devoted  to  festive  associations.  Every  gentleman 
of  the  State  had  his  circle  of  connections,  friends,  and 
acquaintances,  and  they  were  invited  from  one  plantation 
to  another.  Servants  attended  them  to  open  the  gates ; 
and  the  whole  community  seemed  to  be  given  up  to  social 
enjoyment.  A  wedding  was  a  great  gala  time.  At  one 
given  about  the  year  1790  by  Nicholas  Gardiner  there 
were  six  hundred  guests  in  attendance.  Great  sociability 
was  the  characteristic  feature  of  the  time ;  but  political 
acrimony    and    discord    engendered    by    the    Revolution 


no  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  iv. 

broke  up  this  state  of  society,  which  was  never  restored. 
Dr.  McSparran  was  rector  of  the  Narragansett  Church  for 
thirty-seven  years,  and  left  a  great  impress  upon  the  com- 
munity, of  which  he  was  a  very  conspicuous  figure. 

In  Bristol,  which  until  1 746  was  included  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  St.  Michael's  Church  was 
organized  in  17 19,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Oremus  being  sent  over 
from  England  by  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.)  as  the 
rector.  He  remained  only  a  year,  when  he  removed  to 
New  York,  and  the  Rev.  John  Usher  was  appointed  to  his 
place.  "  Mr.  Usher  was  a  man  of  most  earnest  piety,  and 
thoroughly  devoted  to  his  work.  His  labors  were  signally 
blessed,  and  his  hallowed  influence  and  honored  name 
have  been  perpetuated  in  Bristol  to  the  present  day.  He 
made  the  welfare  of  the  church  the  whole  business  of  his 
existence,  and  was  called  to  suffer  deprivations  and  hard- 
ships such  as  few  of  the  clergy  are  called  to  endure  at  the 
present  day."  Seven  hundred  and  thirteen  persons  were 
baptized  under  his  ministry ;  and  his  parishioners  raised 
from  eighty  to  a  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  annually  for 
the  expenses  of  their  church,  though,  being  in  Massachu- 
setts, they  were  also  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  Congre- 
gational minister.  It  is  a  singular  circumstance  in  the  life 
of  Mr.  Usher  that,  as  the  record  says,  the  vestry  voted,  in 
1730,  "that  henceforth  the  rector  shall  be  called  on  to 
support  all  the  widows  of  the  church."  The  church, 
though  the  building  was  burned  to  ashes  by  a  band  of 
British  soldiers  during  the  Revolution,  never  ceased  its 
corporate  existence,  and  from  the  beginning  has  always 
been  a  powerful  religious  influence  in  the  life  of  Rhode 
Island.  Bishop  Griswold  was  afterward  its  rector,  and  by 
his  godly  life  and  conversation  continued  the  traditions  of 
faithful  and  devoted  service  which  Mr.  Usher  had  begun. 

It  was  in  1722  that  the  first   Episcopal  church,  then 


ST.  JOHN'S   CHURCH,  PROVIDENCE,  R.  I.  I  I  I 

known  as  King's  Chapel,  but  after  1794  as  St.  John's 
Church,  was  erected  in  Providence.  At  that  time  Provi- 
dence contained  about  four  thousand  persons,  among 
whom  was  a  httle  band  of  church  people,  who,  as  the 
record  reads,  "  having  resolved  to  get  a  minister,  and  live 
like  Christians,  erected  their  house  of  worship  with  some 
aid  from  Newport  and  Boston."  The  congregation  con- 
sisted of  about  a  hundred  persons,  of  whom  seventeen 
were  communicants.  Their  first  rector,  the  Rev.  George 
Pigot,  remained  with  them  but  three  years.  He  was  a 
man  of  fair  scholarship  and  good  character,  but  was  said 
to  have  been  "  of  a  roving  disposition."  Their  second 
minister  was  a  disgraceful  character,  so  rare  in  the  records 
of  the  New  England  church  clergy,  as  we  gather  from 
the  statement  that  "  'tis  observable  that  the  last  Lord's 
Day  he  preached  in  the  church  he  was,  by  an  extraordi- 
nary gust  of  wind,  forced  out  of  the  church  in  the  time  of 
service.  The  next  Lord's  Day,  the  people  refused  his 
preaching.  Afterward  he  was  committed  to  gaol  for  his 
breaking  open  the  door  of  the  church,  which  his  people 
had  fastened  up  after  they  had  hall*^!  him  out  of  the  pulpit 
on  the  9th  instant  for  his  irregularities."  The  Rev.  John 
Checkley,  having  at  last  obtained  orders,  as  we  have  pre- 
viously seen,  became  rector  in  1739.  He  was  a  good 
scholar,  a  man  devoted  to  missionary  work  among  the 
Indians,  and,  as  is  recorded,  "  a  favorite  companion  of 
learned  and  curious  men,  though  some  were  offended  by 
his  opinions,  and  others  thought  him  too  much  of  a  wag 
for  an  intimate  acquaintance."  The  Rev.  John  Graves, 
who  succeeded  him,  an  excellent  man,  and  highly  com- 
mended by  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.),  which  sup- 
ported him,  continued  to  officiate  until  July,  1776,  "  when 
he  was  pleased  to  absent  himself  from  duty,  though  very 
earnestly   requested  to  keep   up  the  worship,  saying  he 


112  PROTESTANr  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  iv. 

could  not,  as  prayers  for  King  George  were  forbidden." 
His  request  to  be  reinstated  at  the  end  of  the  war  was  - 
refused. 

In  connection  with  the  founding  of  King's  or  St.  John's 
Cliurch  there  are  several  laymen  who  deserve  grateful 
recognition,  among  them  Nathaniel  Brown,  the  donor  of 
the  land  on  which  the  church  was  built,  given,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  deed,  "  for  the  glory  and  honor  of  God,  and 
Promoting  the  Society  and  Communion  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  these  foreign  partes  of  the  world,  as  the  same 
is  by  law  established."  He  was  one  of  the  persons  im- 
prisoned in  Bristol,  in  1724,  "for  refusing  to  pay  toward 
the  support  of  the  teacher  in  that  town,  namely,  Mr. 
Greenwood,  whom  they  refused  to  support,  supposing  it 
criminal  to  contribute  toward  supporting  schism  and  a 
causeless  separation  from  the  Church  of  England."  Jo- 
seph Whipple  was  another  generous  friend,  one  of  the  first 
wardens  of  the  church,  and  the  chief  contributor  toward 
the  cost  of  its  erection.  The  name,  also,  of  Gabriel  Bernon 
should  be  had  in  special  remembrance.  A  tablet  to  his 
memory  has  been  placed  upon  the  walls  of  the  present 
church,  in  which  it  is  recorded  that  "  to  the  persevering 
piety  and  untiring  zeal  of  Gabriel  Bernon,  the  first  three 
Episcopal  churches  in  Rhode  Island  owed  their  origin." 
He  was  a  merchant  of  Rochelle,  France,  and  a  Huguenot 
who  had  been  imprisoned  two  years  in  his  native  land  for 
his  zeal  in  the  Protestant  cause,  previous  to  the  Revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  He  came  to  America  soon  after 
the  year  1687,  and  was  the  first  signer  of  the  petition  for 
Trinity  Church,  Newport,  twenty-five  years  before  the 
establishment  of  the  church  in  Providence.  In  1 72 1  he 
entered  into  correspondence  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  McSpar- 
ran,  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  in  reference  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  Episcopal  services  in  Providence,  and  in  1724 


CIICKCH  LIFE   IX  RHODE   ISLAND.  113 

addressed  a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  the  Venerable  Society 
(S.  P.  G.),  in  which  he  says:  "We  have  built  a  church 
which  we  have  named  King's  Church,  where  we  intend  to 
obey,  serve,  and  adore  God  according  to  the  Protestant 
religion  and  the  Reformation  by  Edward  VI.,  Cranmer, 
and  the  blessed  Queen  Elizabeth.  So  we  want  the  whole 
and  entire  ministry  of  a  minister,  and  he  shall  have  em- 
ployment enough  to  accomplish  his  mission."  He  was  a 
man  of  the  highest  character,  whose  demeanor  was  marked 
by  the  courtesy  indicative  of  his  French  lineage,  and  a 
layman  to  whom  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Rhode  Island 
is,  perhaps,  more  indebted  than  to  any  other  individual. 
It  is  recorded  of  him,  "  He  died  in  great  faith  and  hope 
in  his  Redeemer,  and  assurance  of  salvation,  and  has  left 
a  good  name  among  his  acquaintances."  He  died  in  i  736, 
and  lies  buried  beneath  St.  John's  Church. 

The  four  churches  we  have  mentioned  are  the  only  ones 
which  have  survived  of  those  established  during  the.  eigh- 
teenth century  in  Rhode  Island.  They  were  all  supported, 
to  a  great  extent,  by  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.), 
who  gave  to  each  of  them  from  sixty  to  seventy  pounds  a 
year.  It  is  computed  that  to  the  churches  in  Rhode 
Island  this  society  contributed  altogether  not  less  than  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  characteristic  of  the  church 
in  Rhode  Island  during  the  period  previous  to  the  Revo- 
lution was  that  orderly  and  seemly  worship  which  distin- 
guished it  from  the  more  emotional  enthusiasm  of  the 
Baptists,  as  well  as  from  the  utter  absence  of  form  preva- 
lent among  the  Quakers,  by  which  two  bodies  it  was 
surrounded.  It  was  not  marked  by  religious  enthusiasm, 
but  "  it  stood  sentinel  over  the  proprieties  and  amenities 
and  moralities  of  life,  and  taught  the  current  virtues  of 
good  citizenship — honesty,  sobriety,  thrift,  economy,  and 
industry.      It  helped  to  make  children  obedient,  and  par- 


114  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap,  i v. 

ents  considerate  and  kind,  and  servants  truthful  and  faith- 
ful. If  it  did  not  apprehend  the  breadth  of  Christ's 
purpose  in  establishing  his  kingdom  on  earth  ;  if  the  church 
was  regarded  rather  as  an  organic  structure  than  as  a 
living  power,  still  it  was  true  to  her  ministry  and  order, 
and  ordinances  and  services ;  and  those  services  edified  and 
comforted  the  listeners,  regulated  and  elevated  the  flow  of 
common  life ;  and  the  Sundays  and  holy  days  made  men 
understand  and  feel  that  there  is  something  higher  to  live 
for  than  the  greed  of  gain,  or  the  follies  of  fashion,  or  the 
appetites  of  the  body,  or  the  rewards  of  ambition.  If  Christ 
was  not  preached  in  all  his  fullness,  and  the  power  of  the 
cross  brought  home  with  earnestness  and  vigor  to  the  souls 
of  sinners,  and  believers  led  along  the  heights  of  grace  in 
the  pulpit,  still  the  way  of  salvation  was  indicated ;  and 
many  with  the  liturgy  in  their  hands,  pervaded  through 
and  through  with  the  truth  and  spirit  of  Christ,  found 
peace  in  believing."  ^  It  was  a  period  when  the  standard 
of  religious  fervor  was  generally  low,  and  the  number  of 
those  who  were  distinguished  for  theological  learning  and 
effective  preaching  was  comparatively  small ;  but  the 
churches  thus  maintained  became  the  seed  of  an  after- 
growth of  a  far  higher  and  more  vital  type  of  Christianity. 

New  Hampshire. 

Ninety  years  after  the  suppression  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  Portsmouth  by  the  Puritans,  the  church  was 
again  introduced  in  1732.  Many  men  of  character  and 
substance  attached  to  the  forms  of  the  Church  of  England 
had  by  this  time  become  residents  of  Portsmouth  and  its 

1  Historical  discourse  by  Bishop  Clark  at  the  opening  of  the  one-hun- 
dredth session  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Rhode  Island,  June, 
1890. 


ST.  JOHN'S   CHURCH,  PORTSMOUTH,  N.  H.  115 

vicinity.  They  now  erected  a  church,  assisted  by  friends 
in  London ;  and  the  queen  presented  to  it  several  foHo 
prayer-books  and  a  service  of  plate  for  the  altar,  engraved 
with  the  royal  arms.  In  token  of  gratitude  for  these  favors 
the  edifice  was  called  Queen's  Chapel,  and  was  opened  for 
divine  service  in  1734.  Mr.  Brown,  from  Providence,  took 
charge  of  the  chapel  in  1736;  and  the  Venerable  Society 
(S.  P.  G.)  allowed  him  sixty  pounds  a  year  as  missionary 
at  Portsmouth,  and  fifteen  pounds  on  account  of  his  min- 
istrations at  Kittery.  At  that  time  Mr.  Brown  writes  to 
the  society  that  "  the  town  and  district  of  Portsmouth 
contain  between  six  hundred  and  seven  hundred  families, 
whereof  fifty  or  sixty  are  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
all  the  rest  Independent,  there  being  neither  Quakers, 
Baptists,  Papists,  Heathen,  nor  Infidels.  He  read  prayers 
every  morning,  at  seven  o'clock,  from  May  to  September, 
and  preached  a  weekly  lecture  to  strengthen  his  flock 
against  the  pernicious  doctrine  of  enthusiasts,  besides  dis- 
charging his  constant  duty  on  Sundays."  In  the  "Abstract 
of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  [S.  P.  G.]  "  it  is  stated 
that  "  the  contagion  of  enthusiasm  has  spread  itself  into 
the  government  of  New  Hampshire ;  but  by  letters  from 
thence  we  are  informed  that  the  little  flock  of  our  fold 
there  hath  almost  entirely  escaped  the  infection"  ;  and  in 
1 746,  "  that  the  tempest  of  enthusiasm  being  blown  over, 
great  numbers  of  well-meaning  persons  who  had  been 
aff'ected  with  it,  upon  their  return  to  sober  thinking,  re- 
paired to  our  communion  as  the  best  refuge  from  those 
wild  principles  and  practices  which  had  raised  such  great 
confusion  among  them,  and  that  the  Church  gained  ground 
and  reputation  throughout  these  very  populous  colonies." 
Mr.  Brown  ministered  not  only  in  Portsmouth  ;  he  also 
made  missionary  excursions  into  the  neighborhood  all  about, 
and  gathered  many  for  the  church.      He  employed  first 


Il6  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap,  i v. 

his  son,  Rev.  Marmaduke  Brown,  and  afterward  others,  as 
itinerant  missionaries,  and  thus  disseminated  a  knowledge 
of  the  church  quite  widely.  Mr.  Brown  died  shortly  be- 
fore the  Revolution,  in  1773,  and  Dr.  Mather  Byles  took 
his  place,  coming  from  Christ  Church,  Boston.  Being  a 
loyalist,  Dr.  Byles  retreated  to  Halifax  in  1776,  and  it  was 
not  until  after  the  war  that  the  church  in  New  Hampshire 
began  to  revive.  In  1 791  what  had  been  known  as  Queen's 
Chapel  was  incorporated  under  the  name  of  St.  John's 
Church,  Portsmouth.  The  course  of  St.  John's  Church 
during  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  was  an  even  and  quiet 
one.  During  the  days  of  the  colonial  government  the  aver- 
age number  of  families  was  about  fifty.  In  common  with 
the  other  Episcopal  churches  it  suffered  much  harm  during 
the  war ;  but  when  hostilities  ceased  there  was  a  gradual 
accession  of  numbers  to  it.  It  more  than  kept  even  with 
the  growth  of  the  place.  Rev.  Dr.  Burroughs,  who  became 
rector  in  1812,  was  more  than  usually  efficient  and  useful; 
and  his  ministry,  with  that  of  Rev.  Mr.  Brown,  extended 
through  eighty-four  years. 

Besides  St.  John's  Church,  Portsmouth,  there  was  in  New 
Hampshire,  before  the  Revolution,  only  one  other  church, 
that  of  Claremont.  Although  quite  a  large  proportion  of 
the  first  settlers  were  attached  to  the  Church  of  England, 
and  although  during  the  colonial  times  it  received  many 
favors  from  those  who  were  in  places  of  power,  especially 
the  Wentworths,  jts  progress  was  inconsiderable.  Political 
prejudice  and  interest  retarded  its  growth.  Parties  of  all 
kinds  of  religious  belief  and  of  no  particular  belief  were 
united  in  opposition  to  it.  In  fact,  the  church  was  simply 
tolerated.  The  town  of  Claremont  was  chartered  by  his 
Excellency  Benning  Wentworth,  governor  of  the  province 
of  New  Hampshire,  in  1764.  In  apportioning  the  terri- . 
tory  into  seventy-five  equal  shares  of  three. hundred  and 


THE    CHURCH  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  117 

twenty  acres  each,  one  share  was  reserved  for  a  glebe  for 
the  Church  of  England,  as  by  law  established  ;  one  for  the 
Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.) ;  and  one  for  the  first  settled 
minister.  The  town  was  not  settled,  however,  until  1767, 
when  it  was  occupied  by  emigrants  from  Farrington,  Conn. 
They  were  anxious  to  have  the  services  of  the  church, 
but  were  unable  to  obtain  a  minister.  They  engaged 
Mr.  Samuel  Cole,  who  had  graduated  from  Yale  College 
in  1 73 1,  and  had  already  made  some  progress  in  the  studies 
preparatory  to  taking  orders,  to  act  as  lay  reader,  cate- 
chist,  and  schoolmaster.  He  was  a  true  and  faithful  man, 
who  did  his  work  well,  though  it  was  an  humble  one.  The 
town  was  a  hundred  and  forty  miles  from  Portsmouth,  and 
consequently  could  have  no  clerical  assistance  from  that 
parish. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Peters,  of  Hebron,  Conn.,  was  the  first 
Episcopal  minister  known  to  have  officiated  in  Claremont. 
He  made  a  tour  as  a  missionary  through  the  towns  along 
the  Connecticut  River,  in  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont, 
in  1770.  He  is  said  to  have  organized  the  church  in  Clare- 
mont in  1 771,  and  it  was  ministered  to  by  the  itinerant- 
missionaries  of  the  S.  P.  G.  for  New  Hampshire ;  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Badger  until  he  resigned  this  office  in  17  74-  His 
successor,  Mr.  Cossit,  fixed  his  residence  in  Claremont,  and 
henceforth  ministered  to  the  congregation  while  continu- 
ing his  missionary  labors.  The  first  church  was  erected 
in  1773,  and  during  the  war  the  congregation  led  a  most 
uncomfortable  existence.  Mr.  Cossit  was  confined  to  the 
town  as  a  prisoner  after  April,  1775  ;  but  he  writes  to  the 
S.  P.  G.  :  "  I  have  constantly  kept  up  public  services,  with- 
out any  omissions  for  the  King  and  royal  family,  and  like- 
wise made  use  of  the  prayers  for  the  High  Court  of  Parlia- 
ment and  the  prayers  used  in  the  time  of  war  and  tumults. 
The  number  of  my  parishioners  and  communicants  in  Clare- 


Il8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap,  i v. 

mont  are  increased,  but  I  have  been  cruelly  distressed  with 
fines  for  refusing  entirely  to  fight  against  the  King.  In 
sundry  places  where  I  used  to  officiate,  the  church  are  all 
dwindled  away.  Some  have  fled  to  the  King's  army  for 
protection,  some  are  banished,  and  many  are  dead."  ^ 

Until  after  the  Revolution  Vermont  formed  part  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  has  no  separate  church  history. 

Maine. 

From  the  death  of  Jordan,  which  we  have  recorded,  until 
1756,  there  was  no  Episcopal  clergyman  in  Maine;  but  at 
Pemaquid,  between  i  725  and  i  730,  there  was  a  person  ap- 
pointed by  the  commissioners  to  read  prayers  and  the  holy 
Scriptures,  and  a  small  brick  chapel  was  built  at  Prospect. 
A  number  of  patriotic  Germans  having  reached  Boston  in 
1 75  I,  fifty  families  settled  at  Frankfort,  within  the  Kenne- 
bec Purchase,  the  Plymouth  Company  offering  them  lib- 
eral terms.  In  1754  the  people  of  Frankfort  and  George- 
town applied  to  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.)  for  a 
missionary.  On  March  31,  1755,  Rev.  William  Macclena- 
ghan  was  appointed  a  missionary ;  but  he  did  not  reach 
the  mission  till  May,  1756.  He  was  reported  diligent  in 
his  work;  but  having  no  church  or  glebe  or  house,  he 
lived  in  the  old  fort  at  Fort  Richmond,  and  he  soon  be- 
came weary  of  duties  which  were  very  laborious.  He  left 
the  mission  in  December,  1758,  and  appeared  in  Virginia, 
Philadelphia,  and  New  Jersey,  always  a  troublesome  ele- 
ment. Neither  the  place  of  his  birth  nor  of  his  death  is 
known. 

On  a  renewed  petition,  in  1759,  the  society  appointed 
Mr.  Bailey,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  and  who  was  recom- 
mended by  ministers  in  Boston.      He  proceeded  to  Eng- 

1  "  The  History  of  the  Eastern  Diocese,"  vol.  i.,  p.  194. 


THE    CHURCH  IN  MAINE.  II9 

land  for  holy  orders.  He  reached  his  post  June,  1 760, 
and  wrote  to  the  society  soon  afterward  that  he  found  in 
the  county  of  Lincoln  fifteen  hundred  families  scattered 
over  a  region  of  a  hundred  by  sixty  miles,  with  no  teacher 
of  any  denomination,  except  a  number  of  illiterate  exhort- 
ers  who  rambled  about  the  country.  Among  the  people 
was  a  mixture  of  several  languages  and  religions  ;  but  they 
were  pretty  constant  in  attending  public  worship.  Travel- 
ing was  difficult.  He  found  the  work  sufficiently  large 
and  growing  to  write  for  additional  missionaries.  In  1 768 
Rev.  Mr.  Wheeler,  who  had  gone  out  to  England  for  orders, 
was  appointed,  who,  after  a  voyage  of  ten  weeks,  reached 
Boston,  and  at  once  went  to  Georgetown,  and  was  well  re- 
ceived. In  October,  1 769,  Mr.  Wheeler  writes  the  society  : 
"There  are  about  two  hundred  families,  Presbyterians,  In- 
dependents, Baptists.  Preached  three  Sundays,  and  erected 
a  church  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Kennebec,  three  miles 
below  Bath."  The  church,  perhaps,  was  never  finished. 
A  church,  however,  was  built  in  Pownal  by  Mr.  Bailey 
during  1770,  which  measured  sixty  by  thirty-two  feet, 
and  seated  a  congregation  of  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  and 
thirty.  In  1772  Mr.  Wheeler  went  to  Newport,  R.  I.,  and 
Mr.  Bailey  again  took  charge. 

The  infant  settlements  extended  from  Pownalsborough 
forty-five  miles  along  the  river;  and  four  hundred  families 
were  settled  there,  with  no  minister  of  any  denomination. 
They  were  greatly  indebted  to  Dr.  Gardiner,  of  Boston,  a 
phj^sician,  who  built  churches  and  gave  glebes  and  money. 
Mr.  Bailey  went  in  a  sleigh  the  whole  length  of  the  Ken- 
nebec River  to  Fort  Halifax,  in  the  present  town  of  Wins- 
low.  During  1774  he  says:  "The  parishioners  here  do 
not  join  in  insurrections ;  but  nothing  can  be  more  dismal 
than  the  situation  of  the  Episcopal  ministers  who  have 
any  dependence  in  Great  Britain.     They  are  insulted  and 


I20  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  iv. 

threatened,  and  can  scarce  procure  the  necessaries  of  Hfe. 
My  Presbyterian  neighbors  were  so  zealous  for  the  good 
of  their  country  that  they  killed  seven  of  my  sheep  out 
of  twelve,  and  shot  a  fine  heifer  as  she  was  feeding  in  my 
pasture."  Thus  he  writes  amid  his  tribulations,  which 
were  not  wholly  inexcusable,  seeing  that  he  was  a  firm 
Tory  amid  a  patriotic  community  stirred  to  war  and  striv- 
ing for  independence.  He  stoutly  refused  to  cease  praying 
for  the  king,  declaring,  "  If  all  my  brethren  had  departed 
from  their  integrity,  I  could  never  think  myself  excused 
from  blame  by  following  their  example."  Yet  he  naively 
adds,  "  Perhaps  my  fortitude  at  another  time  might  have 
failed."  He,  however,  received  aid  from  Boston  in  his  dis- 
tress, but  was  at  last  prohibited  by  the  sheriff  of  the  county 
from  officiating;  and  in  1779  he  left  for  Nova  Scotia,  after 
being  in  Frankfort  for  nineteen  years,  and  his  church  and 
parsonage  fell  into  decay.  He  died  after  forty-eight  years 
of  service,  a  faithful  priest,  if  a  narrov/  -man. 

It  was  not  until  1849  that  the  new  parish  of  St.  John's 
was  organized  in  Dresden,  which  formed  part  of  the  old 
town  of  Pownalstown.  The  parish  of  Georgetown,  to  which 
Mr.  Bailey  ministered,  also  fell  into  decay.  The  old  joarish 
has  been  in  a  measure  revived  by  the  organization  of  one 
in  the  city  of  Bath  (Grace  Church,  consecrated  in  1853), 
standing  about  three  miles  north  of  the  old  church.  Thus 
the  church  has  existed  in  this  township  two  hundred  and 
sixty-six  years. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Jordan  (1679),  until  1754,  there 
was  no  service  of  the  English  Church  in  Falmouth.  When 
Shirley  visited  it,  in  1754,  to  make  an  Indian  treaty, 
Mr.  Charles  Bucknell,  assistant  minister  of  King's  Chapel, 
Boston,  came  with  him  and  preached,  and,  according  to 
the  minister's  diary,  "carried  on  in  the  Church  form,"  and 
"  gave  great  offense  by  his  doctrine."     The  service  seems 


CHURCH  CONGREGATIONS  IN  MAINE.  1 21 

to  have  started  anew  the  interest  of  church  people ;  and 
at  last,  in  1763,  they  took  action  toward  building  a  new 
house  of  worship,  subscriptions  for  which  ran  as  high  as 
forty  pounds  and  as  low  as  one  pound  tenpence.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  signers  two  of  them  quarreled  and  fought ; 
and  it  is  recorded,  "A  foundation  for  the  Church  was  thus 
laid,  the  pillars  tremble."  However,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wis- 
wall  was  called  from  the  Congregationalists  and  sent  to 
England  for  orders,  whence  he  returned  in  1765  with  ad- 
ditional promise  of  support  from  the  S.  P.  G.  The  new 
church,  unfinished,  was  occupied^  In  1772  the  tax  for 
the  support  of  the  Congregational  church  was  remitted. 
Troubles  were  rife  during  the  excitement  of  the  war ;  and 
Wiswall,  obliged  to  flee,  went  to  Boston,  and  served  as 
deputy  chaplain  to  two  regiments.  During  the  war  there 
were  no  services  in  Falmouth.  In  1783  a  meeting  in  the 
interests  of  the  church  was  held  at  Mr.  Thomas  Motley's ; 
and  services  were  conducted  by  lay  readers  until  1787, 
when  a  new  church  was  built.  In  i  791  an  Episcopal  church 
named  St.  Paul's  was  formed  in  the  town  of  Portland,  of 
which  Rev.  Joseph  Warren,  of  Gardiner,  became  minister 
in  I  796. 

In  I  771  Dr.  Gardiner  began  a  church  at  Gardinerstown, 
the  building  of  which  was  interrupted  by  the  war ;  but  it 
was  finished  in  1793.  It  contained  three  classes  of  pews. 
The  first  class  was  taxed  fourpence  a  Sunday ;  the  second 
class,  threepence ;  and  the  third  class,  twopence.  Dr. 
Gardiner  left  to  the  church  a  legacy  of  twenty  pounds 
per  annum,  ten  acres,  a  parsonage  house,  and  a  library. 
This  church,  called  Christ  Church,  at  Gardiner,  and  St. 
Paul's  at  Portland,  were  the  only  two  Episcopal  churches 
in  Maine  when  Bishop  Griswold  became  Bishop  of  the 
Eastern  Diocese  in  18 11,  and  there  was  no  minister  in 
either  of  them  at  that  time. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    COLONIAL   CHURCH    IN    CONNECTICUT. 

The  church  in  Connecticut  was  virtually  founded  and 
supported  during  the  .colonial  period  by  the  Venerable 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts.  In  the  earliest  history  of  the  State,  when  there 
were  two  jurisdictions,  with  separate  governors  and  coun- 
cils (that  of  John  Winthrop,  who  came  in  1635,  and  made 
a  settlement  at  Windsor;  and  that  of  John  Davenport  and 
his  associates,  who  gathered  the  settlements  of  the  colony 
of  New  Haven  in  1638),  there  is  no  evidence  of  the  exist- 
ence of  Episcopacy  at  all.  By  or  a  little  before  the  time 
of  the  union  of  these  two  jurisdictions,  in  1665,  when  Win- 
throp became  the  governor  of  the  united  colonies  under 
the  charter  of  Charles  H.,  a  petition  of  William  Pitkin  and 
six  others,  who  signed  themselves  "  Professors  of  the  Prot- 
estant Christian  Religion,  Members  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  Subjects  to  our  sovereign  Lord,  Charles  H.,  by 
God's  grace  King  of  England,"  was  addressed  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly.  It  asked  for  a  redress  of  grievances,  which 
were  in  substance  that  the  ministers  refused  to  baptize  their 
children,  and  that  they  were  neglected  by  them.  As  an 
answer  the  ministers  and  churches  in  Connecticut  were 
recommended  "  to  consider  whether  it  be  not  their  duty  to 
entertain  all  such  persons,"  meaning  by  entertain  to  receive 
into  church  fellowship  and  to  treat  accordingly. 

When  the  commissioners  of  Charles  II.  visited  Connecti- 


INTRODUCTION  OF   THE    CHURCH,  HOG.  1 23 

cut,  in  1665,  they  carried  back  a  report  that  "  the  colony 
will  not  hinder  any  from  enjoying  the  sacraments,  and 
using  the  Common  Prayer-Book,  provided  they  hinder  not 
the  maintenance  of  the  public  minister."  This  was,  how- 
ever, not  a  legal  provision,  and  it  was  not  until  1 708  that 
any  public  worship  except  that  of  the  religion  established 
by  the  colonial  government  became  lawful.  Even  then, 
those  who  dissented  from  the  Standing  Order  were  not 
exempt  from  taxation  for  its  maintenance.  They  might 
worship  in  their  own  way,  but  they  must  pay  to  support 
the  way  of  the  colony. 

The  first  movement  toward  the  establishment  of  an 
Episcopal  church  in  Connecticut  was  that  of  a  considerable 
number  of  freeholders,  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Stratford, 
in  Fairfield  County,  professors  of  the  faith  of  the  Church 
of  England.  Nothing,  however,  seems  to  have  been  ac- 
complished before  the  visit  of  Keith  and  Talbot,  sent  out, 
as  we  have  seen,  by  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.)  to  make 
a  survey  of  the  religious  condition  of  the  colonies.  The 
only  town  which  they  visited  in  Connecticut  was  New 
London,  where  they  preached  in  the  Congregational  church 
by  the  invitation  of  the  minister,  Mr.  Gurdon  Saltonstall, 
who  afterward  became  governor  of  the  colony.  Keith 
reported  to  the  society  that  Connecticut  contained  thirty 
thousand  souls  and  about  thirty-three  towns,  all  dissent- 
ers, supplied  with  ministers  and  a  school  of  their  own  per- 
suasion. 

The  real  introduction  of  Episcopacy  into  Connecticut 
came  by  way  of  New  York,  and  chiefly  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  the  Hon.  Caleb  Heathcote,  a  man  of  high 
position  in  the  New  York  government.  The  application 
which  had  been  made  in  1 702  to  the  Bishop  of  London 
for  a  missionary  at  Stratford  had  not  succeeded.  Some 
Connecticut  people   living  near  Rye,  within  the  borders 


124  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

of  New  York,  attended  the  ministrations  of  Rev.  George 
Muirson,  a  missionary  to  the  church  at  that  place.  Mr. 
Muirson,  in  company  with  Colonel  Heathcote,  made  a 
journey  in  i  706  to  explore  the  shore  towns  from  Green- 
wich to  Stratford.  They  seem  to  have  anticipated  oppo- 
sition, for  they  rode  into  the  village  fully  armed ;  and 
Muirson  preached  in  the  face  of  threats  of  imprisonment, 
and  baptized  about  twenty-four,  mostly  grown  people, 
as  it  were  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  The  parish  of 
Stratford  was  organized  by  Mr,  Muirson  in  1707;  but  he 
died  in  1 708,  and  the  parish,  with  about  thirty  communi- 
cants, was  left  to  the  occasional  services  of  missionaries 
who  chanced  to  visit  the  neighborhood.  The  first  mis- 
sionary sent  by  the  S.  P.  G.  arrived  in  17 12;  but  he 
neglected  his  duties,  and  left  the  parish  in  i  7 1 3  worse  than 
he  found  it.  It  was  not  until  1722  that  any  start  was 
made  for  the  building  of  a  church.  At  that  time  the  Rev. 
George  Pigot  was  sent  by  the  S.  P.  G.  as  missionary,  and 
the  timber  which  had  been  gathered  for  a  church,  and 
which  had  been  seasoning  since  1714,  was  then  erected 
into  a  building.  Mr.  Pigot  remained  only  about  four 
months,  taking  up  his  mission  at  Providence,  R.  L,  where 
he  became  the  first  minister  of  King's,  afterward  St.  John's, 
Church.  In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Reed,  the  Congregational 
minister,  who  had  shown  a  friendly  disposition  to  the 
Episcopalians,  lost  his  parish  by  reason  of  this  friendli- 
ness, and  was  replaced  by  Mr.  Timothy  Cutler,  who  later 
removed  to  the  rectorship  of  Yale  College,  and  by  his  con- 
version in  that  distinguished  position  became  the  inaugu- 
rator  of  a  strong  movement  toward  the  church  in  Con- 
necticut. It  was  in  1722  that  this  event  occurred,  and  it 
was  so  remarkable  and  momentous  that  we  may  well  dwell 
upon  it. 


CONVERSION  OF   THE  RECTOR    OF   YALE  COLLEGE.  125 

Yale  College  had  been  moved  in  17 16  to  New  Haven 
from  Saybrook,  where  it  had  been  founded  in  the  first 
year  of  the  century  (1701)  as  the  chief  educational  institu- 
tion of  Connecticut.  It  was  greatly  favored  by  the  more 
conservative  element  in  Massachusetts,  though  some  op- 
position had  been  raised  by  the  officers  and  fellows  of 
Harvard  College,  who  thought  that  one  collegiate  institu- 
tion was  enough  for  the  wants  of  New  England.  Some, 
however,  as  the  Mathers,  thought  that  they  discerned  a 
too  liberal  tendency  of  things  at  Harvard ;  and  Yale  was 
founded  in  a  conservative  interest.  It  was  at  first  a  school 
rather  than  a  college ;  but  after  its  removal  to  New  Haven 
it  assumed  a  position  of  greater  importance.  After  some 
trouble  in  the  administration,  the  Rev.  Timothy  Cutler, 
then  minister  of  the  Congregational  church  at  Stratford, 
was  called  to  the  rectorship  of  the  college,  at  first  tempo- 
rarily, and  afterward,  on  account  of  his  excellent  adminis- 
tration, permanently.  Daniel  Brown  was  appointed  as  his 
assistant.  These  were  the  only  two  instructors  in  the 
institution,  and  the  number  of  students  was  not  more  than 
thirty-five.  There  were  some  among  them,  however,  who 
afterward  became  eminent,  the  most  distinguished  of  whom 
was  Jonathan  Edwards,  of  whom  Sir  John  Mackintosh  after- 
ward spoke  as  "  the  Dante  and  Aquinas  of  New  England," 
who  was  then  a  member  of  the  junior  class. 

Mr.  Cutler  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  in  the  class  of 
1 701,  and  was  thirty-five  years  of  age,  having  been  settled 
nine  years  in  Stratford,  Conn.  He  may  have  owed  his 
appointment  in  some  measure  to  the  fact  that  he  was  the 
son-in-law  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Andrews,  who  had  discharged 
the  duties  of  the  rector's  office  in  1707,  and  also  brother- 
in-law  of  Jonathan  Law,  of  Milford,  an  influential  member 
of  the  council  at  that  time.     But  the  real  reason  of  his 


126  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

appointment  was  his  distinguished  scholarship  and  his  ad- 
mirable character.  President  Stiles,  in  his  diary,  declares 
that  he  was  an  "  excellent  linguist,  a  great  Hebrician  and 
Orientalist ;  he  had  more  knowledge  of  the  Arabic  than 
probably  any  man  ever  in  New  England  before  him,  except 
President  Chauncey  and  his  disciple,  the  first  Mr.  Thatcher. 
Dr.  Cutler  was  a  logician,  geographer,  and  rhetorician ;  in 
the  philosophy,  metaphysics,  and  ethics  of  his  day,  or 
juvenile  education,  he  was  great.  He  spoke  Latin  with 
fluency  and  dignity,  and  with  great  propriety  of  pronunci- 
ation. He  was  a  noble  Latin  orator.  He  was  of  a  com- 
manding presence  and  dignity  in  government.  He  was 
a  man  of  extensive  reading  in  academic  sciences,  divinity, 
and  ecclesiastical  history.  He  was  of  a  high,  lofty,  and 
despotic  mien.  He  made  a  grand  figure  as  the  head  of  a 
college."  The  Rev.  John  Eliot,  who  was  born  in  Boston 
in  1754,  says  in  his  "Biographical  Dictionary":  "He 
could  never  win  the  rising  generation,  because  he  found  it 
so  difficult  to  be  condescending ;  but  his  extensive  learning 
excited  esteem  and  respect  where  there  was  nothing  to 
move  or  hold  the  affections  of  the  heart."  This,  however, 
seems  to  be  too  sweeping  a  criticism,  if  judged  by  the 
expressions  of  Jonathan  Edwards  in  a  letter  to  his  father 
while  he  was  a  student  at  Yale,  wherein  he  says :  "  Mr. 
Cutler  is  extraordinarily  courteous  to  us,  has  a  very  good 
spirit  of  government,  keeps  the  school  in  excellent  order, 
seems  to  increase  in  learning,  is  loved  and  respected  by  all 
who  are  under  him;  and  when  he  is  spoken  of  in  school  or 
town  he  generally  has  the  title  of  president." 

The  astonishment  and  consternation  of  the  community 
may  be  imagined  when,  on  September  13,  1722,  the  day 
after  the  annual  commencement,  the  following  paper  was 
presented  to  the  trustees  of  Yale  College,  assembled  in  the 
library  at  New  Haven : 


ADDRESS    TO   THE    TRUSTEES  OE   YALE   COLLEGE.  127 

"  To  the  Reverend  Mr.  Andreivs  and  Woodbridge,  and  others 
onr  Reverend  fathers  and  brethren  present  in  the  library 
of  Yale  College  this  iltJi  of  September,  I'jii. 

"  Reverend  Gentlemen  :  Having  represented  to  you 
the  difficulties  which  we  labor  under  in  relation  to  our 
continuance  out  of  the  visible  communion  of  an  Episcopal 
Church,  and  a  state  of  seeming  opposition  thereto,  either 
as  private  Christians  or  as  officers,  and  so  being  insisted 
on  by  some  of  you  (after  our  repeated  declinations  of  it) 
that  we  should  sum  up  our  case  in  writing,  we  do  (though 
with  great  reluctance,  fearing  the  consequences  of  it)  sub- 
mit to  and  comply  with  it:  And  signify  to  you  that  some 
of  us  doubt  the  validity,  and  the  rest  of  us  are  more  fully 
persuaded  of  the  invalidity,  of  Presbyterian  ordination  in 
opposition  to  Episcopal,  and  should  be  heartily  thankful 
to  God  and  man  if  we  may  receive  from  them  satisfaction 
therein ;  and  shall  be  willing  to  embrace  your  good  coun- 
sels and  instructions  in  relation  to  this  important  afTair  as 
far  as  God  shall  direct  and  dispose  us  to  do. 

"Timothy  Cutler, 
"John  Hart, 
"  Samuel  Whittlesey 
"Jared  Eliot, 
"James  Wetmore, 
"  Samuel  Johnson, 
"  Daniel  Brown." 

These  signatures  included  not  only  the  whole  teaching 
stafT  of  the  college,  but  also  the  names  of  five  eminent  and 
respected  Congregational  ministers  of  the  neighborhood. 
At  that  date  the  Church  of  England  had  few  avowed 
members  in  Connecticut,  and  not  a  single  established  con- 
gregation.   All  of  these  signers,  save  Cutler,  were  graduates 


128  PROrESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

of  the  college ;  and  three  of  them,  Johnson,  Wetmore,  and 
Brown,  were  members  of  the  class  of  1714.  According 
to  the  testimony  of  a  contemporary,  they  were  "reputed 
men  of  considerable  learning,  and  all  of  them  of  a  virtuous 
and  blameless  conversation.  The  churchmen  among  us  are 
wonderfully  encouraged  and  lifted  up  by  the  appearance 
of  these  gentlemen  on  their  side ;  and  how  many  more  will 
by  their  example  be  encouraged  to  go  over  to  them  God 
only  knows.  It  is  a  very  dark  day  with  us."  Quincy,  in 
his  "  History  of  Harvard  College,"  declares:  "This  event 
shook  Congregationalism  throughout  New  England  like  an 
earthquake,  and  filled  all  its  friends  with  terror  and  appre- 
hension." And  President  Woolsey,  in  his  "  Historical  Dis- 
course on  the  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the 
Institution,"  says:  "I  suppose  that  greater  alarm  would 
scarcely  be  awakened  now  if  the  theological  faculty  of  the 
college  were  to  declare  for  the  Church  of  Rome,  avow  their 
belief  in  transubstantiation,  and  pray  to  the  Virgin  Mary." 
After  the  above-named  paper  had  been  handed  in,  the 
signers  were  entreated  to  reconsider  their  opinions  and 
give  up  their  doubts ;  and  at  the  suggestion  of  the  gov- 
ernor (Governor  Saltonstall)  an  attempt  was  made  to  give 
the  signers  the  satisfaction  they  craved  by  a  public  discus- 
sion in  the  college  library.  This  was  appointed  for  the 
day  following  the  opening  of  the  October  session  of  the 
General  Assembly.  Governor  Saltonstall  himself  presided, 
being  a  theologian  of  no  mean  ability.  The  debate  was 
continued  with  dignity  and  decorum  until  an  old  minister 
began  to  harangue  in  a  declamatory  way,  when  Mr.  Salton- 
stall put  an  end  to  the  conference,  saying  he  had  only  de- 
signed a  friendly  argument.  Of  the  signers,  Messrs.  Hart, 
Whittlesey,  and  Eliot  remained  in  their  old  ecclesiastical 
connection,  and  though  they  never  afterward  opposed  the 
church,  they  remained  silent,  if  not  satisfied.     The  others 


RECTOR    CUTLER'S   CONVERSION.  129 

were  wholly  unshaken  in  their  convictions.  The  college 
voted  to  excuse  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cutler  from  all  further  ser- 
vice as  rector  of  Yale  College,  and  to  accept  the  resigna- 
tion which  Mr.  Brown  had  made  as  tutor.  It  was  pro- 
vided also  that  all  future  rectors  and  tutors  should,  before 
their  appointment  was  completed,  declare  to  the  trustees 
"  their  assent  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  owned  and  con- 
sented to  at  Saybrook,  September  9,  1 708,  and  shall  par- 
ticularly give  satisfaction  to  them  of  the  soundness  of  their 
faith  in  opposition  to  Arminian  and  prelatical  corruptions, 
or  any  other  of  dangerous  consequences  to  the  purity  and 
peace  of  our  churches." 

The  straightforwardness  of  Mr.  Cutler  in  this  action  has 
by  some  been  called  in  question,  because  it  is  asserted  that, 
even  when  coming  to  Yale  College,  his  mind  was  disturbed 
on  this  subject.  He  is  said  to  have  declared  to  Mr.  HolHs 
in  London  in  1723,  "I  was  never  in  judgment  heartily 
with  the  dissenters,  but  bore  it  patiently  until  a  favorable 
opportunity  offered.  This  has  opened  at  Boston,  and  I 
now  declare  pubhcly  what  I  before  believed  privately." 
His  wife  also  is  reported  to  have  said  that  to  her  knowl- 
edge he  had  for  eleven  or  twelve  years  been  so  persuaded, 
and  that  therefore  he  was  the  more  uneasy  in  performing 
the  acts  of  his  ministry  at  Stratford,  and  the  more  readily 
accepted  the  call  to  a  college  appointment  at  New  Haven. 
But,  while  it  was  inevitable  that  his  conduct  and  methods 
should  be  aspersed  by  his  contemporaries,  there  is  not  the 
least  ground  for  suspecting  the  sincerity  and  genuineness 
of  his  convictions.  Such  a  man  in  such  circumstances 
does  not  come  suddenly,  or  without  cautious  reflection 
and  long-continued  study,  to  a  decision  which  reverses 
the  current  of  his  life  and  changes  all  his  cherished  asso- 
ciations. Doubtless  he  had  had  earlier  doubts ;  but  the 
opportunity  for  the  study  of  this  question  offered  by  the 


I30  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

books  in  the  college  library  confirmed  and  strengthened  his 
views.  No  position,  not  even  that  of  rector  of  the  new 
Christ  Church  in  Boston,  which  he  immediately  accepted, 
could  offer  him  a  sphere  of  usefulness  and  distinction  or 
temporal  emoluments  equal  to  those  which  he  enjoyed  as 
rector  of  Yale  College.  The  inevitable  obloquy  attendant 
on  his  change  would  have  deterred  any  one  not  thoroughly 
convinced  of  the  righteousness  of  his  course.  His  whole 
future  life  showed  him  to  be  a  man  whose  decision  must 
be  respected,  although  it  may  have  been  deplored. 

Johnson,  also  one  of  the  signers,  was  a  man  of  the  noblest 
qualities,  of  the  sincerest  piety,  and  of  distinguished  intel- 
lectual ability.  He  afterward  became  a  warm  friend  of 
Dean  Berkeley,  whom  he  visited  in  Rhode  Island,  writing 
criticisms  of  some  of  his  profounder  books.  He  was,  later 
in  life,  elected  first  president  of  King's,  afterward  Columbia, 
College,  New  York.  The  gift  of  a  Prayer-book  while  he 
was  yet  a  youth  in  Guilford  awoke  his  interest  and  en- 
thusiasm ;  and  he  studied  it  until  his  mind  was  full  of  its 
contents.  As  a  Congregational  minister  in  West  Haven 
he  was  celebrated  for  the  beauty  of  his  prayers ;  and  these 
prayers  were  the  collects  of  the  Prayer-book,  which  he  had 
committed  to  memory,  and  used  as  he  could  adapt  them 
to  the  public  worship  of  his  congregation.  He  had  been 
tutor  for  three  years  in  Yale  College,  previous  to  the  rec- 
torship of  Cutler;  and  these  three  friends,  Cutler,  Brown, 
and  Johnson,  met  often  in  the  library  of  the  institution, 
conferring  together  on  the  subject  of  church  government 
and  worship.  There  they  read  the  best  books  which  the 
library  furnished  on  the  controversy.  They  studied  Bar- 
row, Patrick,  South,  Tillotson,  Whitby,  Burnet,  and  other 
eminent  authorities  in  English  theology.  They  were  not 
anxious  to  be  convinced  of  the  validity  of  their  doubts. 

Johnson  wrote  in  his  private  journal  three  months  before 


CONVERSION  OF  JOHNSON.  I  3  i 

his  decision  was  made :  "  I  hoped  when  I  was  ordained 
tliat  I  had  sufficiently  satisfied  myself  of  the  validity  of 
Presbyterian  ordination  under  my  circumstances,  but  I 
have  had  ever  since  growing  suspicions  that  it  is  not  right. 
.  .  .  Oh  that  I  could  either  gain  satisfaction  that  I  may 
lawfully  proceed  in  the  execution  of  the  ministerial  func- 
tion, or  that  Providence  would  make  my  way  plain  for  the 
obtaining  of  Episcopal  orders!  Do  thou,  O  my  God, 
direct  my  steps,  and  guide  and  lead  me  and  my  friends  in 
thy  way  everlasting!"  Immediately  after  the  commence- 
ment Johnson  made  another  record  of  his  feelings,  thus : 
"  It  is  with  great  sorrow  of  heart  that  I  am  forced  thus  by 
the  uneasiness  of  my  conscience  to  be  an  occasion  of  so 
much  uneasiness  to  my  dear  friends,  my  poor  people,  and, 
indeed,  to  the  whole  colony.  O  God,  I  beseech  thee, 
grant  that  I  may  not,  by  an  adherence  to  thy  necessary 
truths  and  laws,  be  a  stumbling-block  or  occasion  of  fall 
to  any  soul!" 

Cutler,  Brown,  and  Johnson  at  once  set  sail  for  England 
to  receive  ordination.  It  is  sad  to  record  that  their  con- 
version to  the  church  excited  some  jealous  apprehension 
in  the  minds  of  a  few  Episcopal  clergymen  of  English  birth 
in  New  England,  lest  they  should  "  get  the  best  places  in 
the  country,  and  take  the  bread  from  off  our  trenchers." 
The  Rev.  Matthias  Plant,  of  Newbury,  declared  his  readi- 
ness to  join  with  the  Rev.  Henry  Harris,  assistant  at  King's 
Chapel  at  Boston,  to  oppose  the  converts,  and  addressed 
the  Bishop  of  London  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  their 
ordination.  Prominent  laymen,  however,  recognized  the 
value  of  this  accession  to  the  Episcopal  ministry ;  and  the 
churchwardens  and  vestry  of  Trinity  Church,  Newport, 
wrote  to  the  secretary  of  the  Venerable  Society  that,  "  upon 
the  whole,  it  seems  highly  probable  that  upon  these  gen- 
tlemen's fate — we  mean  their  reception  and  encourage- 


132  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

ment — depends  a  grand  revolution,  if  not  a  general  revolt, 
from  schism  in  these  parts."  These  three  friends  were  all 
ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  in  St.  Martin's  Church, 
London,  both  deacons  and  priests,  in  March,  1 723.  Within 
a  week  after  their  ordination,  Brown,  who  had  preached 
the  day  before,  was  seized  with  smallpox,  that  most  dire 
disease  of  the  period,  which  is  said  to  have  carried  off  one 
fifth  of  all  those  who  crossed  the  sea  for  ordination.  He 
died  on  Easter  even.  His  two  friends,  after  visiting  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge  (both  of  which  universities  conferred 
upon  Cutler  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity,  and  upon 
Johnson  that  of  Master  of  Arts),  were  joined  by  James 
Wetmore,  their  fellow-signer,  who  was  also  ordained.  Dr. 
Cutler  and  Mr.  Johnson  sailed  for  home  in  July,  1723. 
Cutler  at  once  assumed  charge  of  Christ  Church  in  Boston, 
and  Johnson  proceeded  to  his  mission  in  Stratford,  Conn. 
Mr.  Wetmore  was  sent  to  New  York,  being  subsequently 
stationed  at  Rye,  where  he  died  of  smallpox  in  i  760,  after 
a  successful  ministry  of  thirty-seven  years. 

It  was  from  this  remarkable  beginning  that  the  church 
took  vigorous  root  in  Connecticut,  though  Johnson  was  the 
only  one  of  the  three  converts  who  remained  in  that  colony. 
He  at  once  proceeded  to  Stratford,  and  by  Christmas,  1 724, 
he  succeeded  in  completing  the  church  which  he  found  in 
process  of  building.  This  was  the  first  edifice  for  the 
Church  of  England  erected  in  Connecticut.  His  parish 
numbered  some  thirty  families ;  but  besides  his  ministra- 
tions in  Stratford,  Johnson  cared  for  the  church  families, 
some  forty  or  more,  which  he  found  scattered  through 
the  neighboring  towns  of  Fairfield,  Norwalk,  Newtown, 
Ripton,  and  West  Haven.  He  was  the  only  church  clergy- 
man in  the  whole  colony.  He  at  once  found  the  key  to 
the  situation,  and  appealed  earnestly  to  the  Bishop  of 
London  for  a  bishop  for  the  colony.      The  church  having 


OPPOSITION   TO  EPISCOPACY.  1 33 

now  an  organization  in  Stratford,  the  rector  received 
numerous  intimations  from  various  quarters  of  a  desire  to 
have  the  church  planted  among  them. 

Daniel  Shelton,  a  wealthy  landed  proprietor  of  Ripton 
(now  Huntington),  and  a  sturdy  opponent  of  the  tax  for 
the  State  Establishment,  subscribed  largely  for  a  minister 
in  his  town,  and  he  was  the  representative  of  many  who 
were  like-minded  elsewhere.  There  was  naturally  great 
repugnance  to  the  introduction  of  the  Episcopal  regimen 
and  liturgical  worship  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  hoped 
for  a  quiet  possession  of  the  region,  to  which  they  had 
come,  in  great  measure,  to  escape  what  had  been  to  them 
the  rigorous  rule  of  prelacy  at  home.  Their  opposition 
was  strenuous,  often  more  strenuous  than  scrupulous;  but 
it  was  an  opposition  to  a  system  they  disliked,  not  to  men 
whom  they  discredited  either  for  looseness  of  doctrine  or 
laxity  of  life.  It  was  an  opposition  not  to  aliens,  but  to 
friends  and  neighbors,  chiUren  of  the  soil,  whose  conver- 
sion they  deemed  perversion.  They  held  that  the  gospel 
was  already  sufficiently  ministered  to  the  population ;  and 
their  opposition  to  the  contributions  of  the  Venerable  So- 
ciety (S.  P.  G.)  for  the  spread  of  Episcopacy  was  grounded 
in  the  conviction  that  they  were  fostering  a  needless  schism. 
Of  course  human  passion  mingled  largely  with  doctrinal 
devotion,  and  the  defense  of  dogmatism  was  so  engrossing 
as  often  to  overshadow,  if  not  obliterate,  the  spiritual  pre- 
cepts of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

The  ruling  order  stood  for  their  rights  and  the  church- 
men stood  for  their  liberties.  "Traitor"  and  "bigot" 
were  the  fraternal  terms  by  which  ecclesiastical  combatants 
saluted  each  other ;  and  the  new  Episcopacy  was  destined 
to  have  the  full  benefit  of  a  sharp  discipline.  The  church 
in  its  childhood  was  not  to  be  spoiled  for  lack  of  the  rod 
of  the  Puritan  parent,  where  it  could  be  legally  applied ; 


134  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

and  the  construction  of  the  law,  as  well  as  the  embarrass- 
ments of  struggling  parishes,  gave  sufficient  opportunity 
for  repressive  treatment. 

Still  the  church  grew  and  throve  from  the  start.  It 
was  no  exotic  ;  it  was  no  intrusion  of  a  state  establishment. 
It  arose  out  of  sober  conviction,  and  was  characterized  by 
sobriety  of  life.  If  it  were  more  correct  than  profound  in 
its  religious  life,  it  was  at  least  correct.  It  was  deemed 
formal,  but  it  could  not  be  deemed  fanatical.  It  based  its 
claim  on  the  assurance  of  knowledge  and  the  maintenance 
of  temperance,  not  on  the  turbulent  outburst  of  an  ill- 
regulated  enthusiasm.  It  strove  to  minister  first  to  its 
hidden  friends  as  they  came  to  light,  desiring  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  worship  of  the  Prayer-book,  and  then  to 
extend  itself  to  those  whom  the  rigors  of  a  strict  Calvinism 
were  hardening  into  indifiference.  It  was  a  needed  coun- 
terpoise, to  say  no  more,  to  the  tendency  toward  the 
harsh  rigidity  of  theological  systems,  and  to  the  excessive 
individuality  of  Congregational  independency.  The  ap- 
peal of  its  claims  was  historic,  and  the  tenor  of  its  discipline 
was  communal  rather  than  individual.  It  became,  there- 
fore, a  refuge  from  the  parochial  tyranny  of  both  pastor 
and  people.  The  liberty  of  its  household  was  protected 
by  law,  and  that  not  the  law  of  an  isolated  congregation. 
It  emphasized  the  sacraments,  the  monuments  of  God's 
grace  given,  rather  than  individual  experience  in  the  ictic 
reception  of  that  grace.  Its  religious  life  was  deemed  a 
development,  and  not  a  separate  creation  in  each  case. 
"  Nurture,"  rather  than  "  conversion,"  was  its  watchword. 
An  historic  system  took  the  place  in  it  of  an  inorganic 
spiritual  discipline. 

Johnson  was  fitted,  both  by  nature  and  his  spiritual  ex- 
perience among  the  Congregationalists,  to  be  the  father  of 
the  church  movement.      He  knew  the  good  qualities  and 


MR.  JOHNSON  AND  DEAN  BERKELEY.  I  35 

possessions  of  his  opponents,  and  he  also  understood  their 
lack.  His  benevolence  of  temper  preserved  him  from 
rancor,  and  his  calmness  of  soul  saved  him  from  irritation 
in  controversy.  He  went  steadily  on  his  way,  and  always 
elicited  respect,  even  when  his  principles  were  denounced. 
Some  of  the  more  strenuous  of  his  Episcopal  brethren 
called  him  once  to  account  for  sending  his  son  to  Yale 
College,  because  there  he  must  attend  extemporaneous 
prayers  offered  in  the  chapel  by  Congregational  ministers. 
Johnson  answered  that  he  was  not  called  to  forego  the 
education  of  his  son,  in  the  only  place  in  the  colony  where 
he  could  get  it,  for  attending  prayers  which,  however  in- 
complete, were  not  injurious,  and  which  only  intensified 
his  son's  love  and  preference  for  the  devotions  of  the 
Prayer-book. 

The  relations  of  Johnson  to  his  alma  mater  were  always 
those  of  a  filial  and  devoted  son.  It  was  he  w^ho,  on  a 
last  visit  to  Dean  Berkeley,  before  his  departure  for  Eng- 
land, recommended  the  college  to  his  friendly  notice,  "  not 
having  any  further  view  than  to  hope  he  might  send  it 
some  good  books."  The  good  dean  responded  liberally  to 
the  suggestion.  He  gave  to  his  clerical  friends  the  books 
he  had  brought  over  with  him,  and  made  a  donation  of  all 
his  own  works  to  the  college,  and,  aided  by  others,  sent, 
after  his  return  home,  nearly  a  thousand  volumes  to  its 
library.  This,  according  to  President  Clap's  estimate, 
"  constituted  the  finest  collection  of  books  that  had  then 
ever  been  brought  at  one  time  to  America."  It  was 
through  Johnson,  also,  that  the  dean  transmitted  a  deed 
conveying  to  the  trustees  of  the  college  his  Rhode  Island 
farm  of  ninety-six  acres,  still  in  possession  of  the  institu- 
tion. Out  of  this  broad-minded  recognition  of  the  value 
of  the  college,  Johnson  gained  an  influence  there  which 
led  many  of  the  graduates  to  enter  the  ministry  of  the 


136  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap,  v, 

church,  and  thus  gave  to  its  infant  struggles  the  support 
of  an  educated  clergy. 

One  of  the  earliest  of  these  learned  recruits  was  Henry 
Caner,  who  graduated  at  Yale  in  1724,  to  whom  Johnson 
became  theological  instructor  for  three  years,  until  he  went 
abroad  for  ordination  in  1727.  After  that  he  had  him 
appointed  missionary  in  Fairfield,  the  town  adjoining" 
Stratford.  Here  Caner  assiduously  ministered,  and  in- 
corporated a  church,  the  second  in  the  colony,  and  ex- 
tended his  labors  to  the  neighboring  towns,  such  as 
Norwalk,  Stamford,  and  Greenwich.  Prayer-books  and 
other  religious  publications  were  circulated,  and  the  efforts 
to  discover  families  favorable  to  the  church,  wherever  they 
might  be,  were  unremitting.  These  were  found  in  New- 
town, Redding,  Ridgefield,  and  Danbury.  Johnson  also 
visited  New  Haven,  New  London,  and  Wethersfield. 

Thus  the  movement  spread.  A  great  hindrance  to  it 
was  the  tax  levied  by  the  colony  for  the  support  of  the 
churches  of  the  Standing  Order,  which  was  a  heavy  addi- 
tion to  the  voluntary  contributions  of  churchmen  for  main- 
taining their  own  parishes.  In  the  first  five  years  of 
Johnson's  ministrations  in  Stratford,  eleven  church  families 
moved  into  New  York  for  this  sole  reason.  The  wardens 
and  vestrymen  of  Fairfield  memorialized  the  General  As- 
sembly in  I  727  to  remove  this  burden  ;  and  in  consequence 
a  law  was  enacted  permitting  the  taxes  of  churchmen  to 
be  applied  to  the  minister  of  the  Church  of  England,  if 
there  were  one  sufficiently  near  them  to  permit  of  their 
attending  his  ministrations.  Parishioners  of  the  Church 
of  England  were  also  excused  from  paying  taxes  for  the 
building  of  meeting-houses  for  the  churches  of  the  colony. 
The  law,  however,  was  rendered  in  many  cases  nugatory 
by  the  construction  put  upon  it.  "  Sufficient  nearness  " 
to  the  church  was  defined  to  be  a  distance  within  a  mile 


CONVERSION  OF  BISHOP  SEABURY'S  FATHER.      I  37 

or  two  miles.  Many  of  the  scattered  population  were  thus 
deprived  of  its  benefit ;  and  it  became  a  nullity  in  those 
towns  where  there  was  no  Episcopal  church  or  minister. 

This  occasioned  renewed  efforts  to  secure  resident  mis- 
sionaries from  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.).  McSpar- 
ran,  of  Narragansett,  came  over  from  Rhode  Island  to  give 
occasional  services  at  New  London  and  Groton  ;  and  a  spir- 
it of  inquiry  concerning  the  Scriptural  grounds  of  differ- 
ence between  Episcopacy  and  Congregationalism  was  rife 
throughout  Connecticut  as  early  as  1730.  The  number 
of  actual  churchmen  at  this  period  was  small.  A  tendency 
to  a  more  conciliatory  attitude  toward  Episcopacy  was, 
however,  manifest.  Johnson  writes  at  this  period :  "  A 
love  to  the  church  gains  ground  greatly  in  the  college. 
Several  young  men  that  are  graduates,  and  some  young 
ministers,  are  very  uneasy  out  of  the  communion  of  the 
church,  and  some  of  them  seem  much  disposed  to  come 
into  her  service ;  and  those  that  are  best  affected  to  the 
church  are  the  highest  and  most  studious  of  any  that  are 
educated  in  the  country." 

A  notable  addition  was  made  to  the  ministry  at  this 
time  in  the  accession  of  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  the  father 
of  Bishop  Seabury,  who  gave  up  his  charge  as  stated  sup- 
ply of  the  Second  Ecclesiastical  Society  of  North  Groton, 
and,  going  to  England,  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Gibson. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard.  On  his  return  home  he 
began  to  officiate  at  New  London,  in  a  church  not  yet 
finished,  to  a  congregation  of  a  hundred  persons,  of  whom 
fourteen  were  communicants.  In  less  than  two  years 
wardens  and  vestrymen  were  chosen,  and  in  April,  1732, 
the  third  Episcopal  parish,  with  a  church  building  and  a 
resident  minister,  was  established  in  Connecticut.  In  view 
of  the  subsequent  career  and  influence  of  his  son  this  was 
a  notable  conversion. 


138  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

Two  graduates  of  Yale,  John  Pierson  and  Isaac  Brown 
(the  latter  a  brother  of  the  Brown  who  accompanied  John- 
son and  Cutler  to  England  and  died  there),  went  about 
this  time  to  England  for  ordination,  and  their  accession 
had  its  influence,  though  they  were  appointed  to  labor  as 
missionaries  in  other  colonies.  John  Beach,  also,  a  prom- 
inent young  Congregational  minister  at  Newtown,  entered 
the  church  under  Johnson's  influence,  and  after  his  ordi- 
nation was  appointed  missionary  in  that  town  by  the 
S.  P.  G.  His  earnestness  rapidly  increased  his  flock,  and 
he  reported  accessions  at  every  administration  of  the  com- 
munion. He  proceeded  at  once  to  erect  two  small  churches 
at  Redding  and  Newtown ;  and  the  eager  activity  of  his 
movements  may  find  an  illustration  in  the  fact  that  the 
frame  of  the  building  at  Newtown  was  raised  on  Saturday, 
the  roof-boards  put  on  the  same  evening,  and  the  congre- 
gation assembled  within  this  church  for  worship  on  Sunday 
morning.  Thus  by  1734  the  fourth  and  fifth  churches 
having  a  resident  minister  were  established  in  the  colony. 

Again,  at  North  Groton  there  came  an  accession  in  the 
person  of  Ebenezer  Punderson,  the  successor  of  the  seced- 
ing Samuel  Seabury  as  minister  of  the  Congregational 
society,  who  was  returned  by  the  S.  P.  G.,  after  his  ordi- 
nation, as  missionary  to  the  scene  of  his  former  labors.  He 
was  an  itinerant  missionary,  and  officiated  at  North  Groton 
and  Norwich,  and  penetrated  to  Hebron  and  Middletown. 
A  parish  was  soon  organized  and  a  church  built  at  North 
Groton ;  for  Mr.  Punderson  was  highly  esteemed  by  his 
old  parishioners,  and  drew  many  after  him.  Before  this 
seventh  church  was  erected,  another,  the  sixth  in  order 
of  church  growth  in  the  colony,  had  been  Ipuilt  at  Hebron 
(1734),  on  the  occasion  of  the  secession  of  Rev.  John  Bliss 
from  the  Congregational  ministry,  he  having  been-  the  first 
minister  of  the  town.      Here  Mr.  Bliss  served  for  a  time  as 


CONTROVERSIES.  1 39 

lay  reader.  Johnson,  now  relieved  by  various  missionaries, 
extended  his  own  labors  as  far  as  Waterbury ;  and  Mr. 
Caner,  of  Fairfield,  was  able  to  build  a  new  church  at 
Fairfield  of  far  larger  proportions  and  more  imposing  ap- 
pearance than  the  first.  By  1736  there  were  found  to  be 
seven  hundred  Episcopal  families  in  the  colony. 

It  has  been  deemed  best  to  dwell  on  these  minutiae  of 
the  first  ten  years  of  the  church's  growth  in  Connecticut, 
to  show  the  energy  and  sobriety  of  the  clergy,  and  the 
persistent  determination  of  the  laity  to  secure  the  presence 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  among  them.  The  church's 
growth,  however,  was  not  only  the  fruit  of  abundant  labor, 
but  also  the  result  of  sharp  controversy.  The  Rev.  Jona- 
than Dickinson,  the  celebrated  Presbyterian  divine  of  New 
Jersey,  early  entered  the  lists  in  a  remonstrance  to  a  pa- 
rishioner of  Stratford  church  ;  and  this  drew  out  a  rejoinder 
from  Rector  Johnson.  He  was  not  infrequently  hereafter 
called  upon  to  defend  the  church  of  his  adoption  from 
various  assailants.  Mr.  Foxcroft,  of  Boston,  made  a  sharp 
attack.  The  Rev.  John  Graham,  of  Woodbur}^,  contrib- 
uted sarcasm  and  ridicule  to  the  controversy,  which  caused 
Mr.  Johnson  to  publish  a  pamphlet  on  "  Plain  Reasons  for 
Conforming  to  the  Church  "  ;  and  a  fusillade  of  replies  and 
rejoinders  followed.  Dickinson  again  published  a  sermon 
on  "  The  Vanity  of  Human  Institutions  in  the  Worship 
of  God,"  in  which  he  charged  conformists  to  the  Church 
of  England  in  the  colony  with  willful  schism.  Mr.  John 
Beach,  the  convert  at  Newtown,  replied  in  a  pamphlet 
called  "  A  Vindication  of  the  Worship  of  the  Church  of 
England  "  ;  and  a  lively  conflict  of  tracts  followed  between 
these  two.  But  the  more  the  subject  was  discussed  the 
greater  was  the  growth  of  the  church.  It  gained  steadily 
all  through  the  colony,  and  in  the  first  ten  years  of  its 
existence  had  taken  firm  root. 


I40  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

By  1738  "  the  members  and  professors  of  the  Church  of 
England  Hving  in  Connecticut  "  felt  strong  enough  to  make 
an  appeal  to  the  legislature  for  a  share  in  the  seventy 
thousand  pounds  which  had  been  obtained  by  the  sale  of 
the  western  lands  of  the  colony  to  individual  holders. 
This  sum  had  been  appropriated  by  the  Assembly  to  the 
use  of  schools  or  the  support  of  Congregational  ministers. 
The  petitioners  based  their  appeal  on  their  common  right 
as  citizens  to  share  in  the  common  property,  and  on  the 
law  of  1727,  by  which  churchmen  were  exempted  from 
taxes  for  churches  of  the  Standing  Order,  arguing  that,  on 
these  grounds,  it  was  an  injustice  for  them  to  be  denied 
their  share  in  the  public  moneys  for  the  support  of  their 
ministers.  Among  the  seven  reasons  given  for  their  action, 
the  fourth  one  was  of  special  significance.  In  it  they  as- 
serted that,  "  in  the  opinion  of  the  attorney-general,  a 
solicitor,  and  other  gentlemen  of  the  law  at  home,  there 
could  be  no  such  thing  as  a  regular  establishment  of  any 
one  denomination  of  Christians  in  Connecticut,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  rest,  without  an  explicit  consent  of  the  king's 
Majesty."  The  strength  of  the  church  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  the  appeal  was  signed  by  six  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  males  over  sixteen  years  of  age,  resident  in  nine  parishes 
or  stations  and  under  the  charge  of  seven  clergymen,  and 
by  the  additional  fact  that,  although  the  petition  was  not 
granted,  the  whole  fund  thereafter  was  devoted  to  public 
education,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Congregational  clergy 
as  well  as  the  ministers  of  the  church. 

The  church  continued  to  increase  through  all  this  tur- 
moil. Milford  was  added  to  Johnson's  labors ;  and  a 
church  was  begun  in  Derby,  at  the  junction  of  the  Housa- 
tonic  and  Naugatuck  rivers,  which  it  took  eight  years  to 
build,  and  which  was  afterward  faithfully  served  by  Dr. 
Mansfield  in  the  almost  unique  pastorate  of  seventy-two 


REV.   GEORGE   WHITEFIELD.  14 1 

years.  Arnold,  the  successor  of  Johnson  at  West  Haven 
in  the  Congregational  ministry,  turned  to  the  church  in 
1734,  and  became  an  itinerant  missionary  for  the  colony. 
The  church  which  he  began  in  West  Haven  is,  with  the 
exception  of  the  one  in  Brooklyn,  the  only  one  now  stand- 
ing which  was  built  in  Johnson's  lifetime.  The  position  of 
West  Haven  was  an  important  one,  by  reason  of  its  near- 
ness to  New  Haven  and  Yale  College.  The  instructors  and 
students  who  were  churchmen  went  out  there  to  worship  on 
Sunday  ;  and  Mr.  Arnold  endeavored  to  secure  land  for  a 
church  in  New  Haven,  which  attempt  was  for  a  while 
frustrated  by  the  violent  opposition  of  some  of  the  residents. 
The  government  was,  however,  more  severe  and  hostile 
than  the  people  in  general.  There  was  often  very  friendly 
intercourse  between  the  missionaries  and  some  of  the 
Congregational  ministers ;  and  the  common  opposition  of 
both  to  the  excesses  which  came  in  with  Whitefield's 
visitation  tended  to  draw  them  nearer  together. 

It  is  time  to  speak  of  the  widespread  effects  of  that  mar- 
velous orator  and  devoted,  if  erratic.  Christian  minister  of 
the  Church  of  England,  who  stirred  the  whole  community 
of  Connecticut,  as  elsewhere,  by  his  rare  gift  of  elo- 
quence. Before  coming  to  Connecticut  in  i  740,  he  had  had 
his  career  in  Georgia,  and  had  visited  Massachusetts  and 
Rhode  Island.  Everywhere  his  was  the  voice  of  the 
whirlwind  and  the  storm.  People  came  from  over  twenty 
miles  to  hear  him.  He  had  proved  a  power  at  Harvard 
College,  as  well  as  on  Boston  Common,  where  twenty 
thousand  people  are  said  to  have  assembled  to  hear  his 
farewell  sermon.  Everywhere  he  kindled  an  intense  enthu- 
siasm. Before  coming  to  New  Haven  he  visited  Jonathan 
Edwards  at  Northampton,  and  came  with  his  imprimatur  to 
the  college  town.  His  relations  to  the  Church  of  England 
sat  lightly  on  him.     His  denunciation  of  unspirituality  was 


142  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

as  unsparing  of  priests  and  bishops  as  of  the  worldly  or  dis- 
solute layman.  His  exercises  were  not  limited  by  canons, 
and  his  methods  showed  scant  acquaintance  with  rubrics. 
At  the  time  of  his  visit  to  Connecticut  he  was  almost  com- 
pletely identified  with  the  ministers  of  the  Standing  Order, 
and  his  attitude  toward  the  church  led  them  to  welcome 
him  as  an  ally.  He  kindled  the  fire,  but  he  could  not 
control  the  conflagration.  The  most  fanatical  excesses 
followed  in  the  wake  of  his  preaching.  While  he  smote 
the  conscience,  he  stirred  the  passions.  The  hearts  of  men 
were  like  wax  at  his  touch  ;  but  their  imaginations  were  set 
on  fire  as  with  a  devouring  flame.  The  convictions  of  sin 
were  mingled  with  bodily  agitations  and  outcries.  Jerkings 
and  swoonings,  faintings  and  trances,  were  regarded  as  the 
normal  attendants  of  religious  awakening.  Soon  the  more 
sober-minded  of  the  Congregationalists  began  to  draw 
apart  from  him.  Itinerant  preachers  rose  up  spontane- 
ously to  rebuke  the  unconverted  worldliness  of  those  who 
held  that  things  should  be  done  decently  and  in  order. 
These  came  in  for  the  same  denunciations  as  the  church 
clergy,  and  were  styled  "  dumb  dogs  "  and  "  Pharisees." 
The  Standing  Order  was  divided  against  itself.  Some  were 
carried  away  by  the  popular  enthusiasm ;  others  were  re- 
pelled by  the  extravagances  and  the  uproar.  Thus  it  fell 
out  that  the  church  gathered  in  many  who  reacted  against 
the  prevailing  enthusiasm.  It  grew  continually  all  through 
the  turmoil,  and  its  growth  was  secure.  Doubtless  its  own 
life  was  quickened  by  the  prevailing  religious  atmosphere. 
It  gained  in  warmth  of  feeling  and  depth  of  life  by  the 
contagion.  For  with  all  its  faults  and  attendant  evils,  the 
movement  had  roused  the  slumberous  life  of  Puritanism 
as  by  the  call  of  a  new  reformation.  It  made  religion  an 
experience  to  many  to  whom  it  had  been  only  a  tradition. 
It  vivified  the  gospel  as  a  living  oracle  where  it  had  be- 


EFFECT  OF   WHITEFIELD'S  PREACHING.  143 

come  mostly  a  thesaurus  for  theological  speculation.  It 
made  very  real  the  relations  of  the  personal  soul  to  the 
personal  God.  Crude  theology,  indeed,  followed  in  its 
wake,  as  well  as  irrational  tests  of  spiritual  experience. 
But  henceforth  the  churches  were  alive.  The  faults  of  the 
succeeding  systems  of  divinity  or  methods  of  administration 
all  had  the  note  of  vitality.  The  revival  was  a  veritable 
quickening,  and  the  church  shared  in  the  general  benefit. 
It  was,  of  course,  bitterly  denounced,  and  its  ministers 
were  contemptuously  referred  to  as  "  unconverted."  Even 
Johnson  did  not  escape.  The  Congregational  minister  at 
Stratford,  Hezekiah  Gold,  threatened  him  with  a  plain 
personal  admonition  as  an  intruder,  and  denounced  him  as 
a  worker  of  all  manner  of  mischief.  This  called  forth  a 
letter  from  Johnson  as  full  of  manliness  as  it  was  of  humil- 
ity; and  the  effect  of  it  all  was  to  stimulate  the  church 
growth.  T-he  good  rector  is  reported  to  have  replied 
humorously  to  an  inquiry  concerning  his  congregation  at 
this  time  :  "  Yes,  it  is  increasing.  I  am  a  feeble  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  God ;  but,  thanks  be  to  him !  he  has  placed 
my  left-handed  brother  Gold  here,  who  makes  six  church- 
men while  I  can  make  one." 

This  effect  was  not  confined  to  one  locality.  New 
churches  were  erected  where  before  only  a  few  worshipers 
had  been  gathered  in  private  houses,  as  in  Ridgefield, 
Waterbury,  and  Ripton  (now  Huntington).  In  Plym- 
outh eleven  out  of  the  eighteen  proprietors  of  the  Con- 
gregational church  declared  for  Episcopacy,  and  took 
possession  of  the  building  where  the  society  had  worshiped 
for  the  use  of  the  church.  The  extravagances  of  the  min- 
ister, named  Todd,  accounted  for  this  change.  In  fine, 
Johnson  wrote  to  a  friend  in  London  concerning  this  ex- 
citement:  "  It  has  occasioned  such  a  growth  of  the  church 
in  this  town  (as  well  as  in  many  other  places)  that  the 


144  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

church  will  not  hold  us,  and  we  are  obliged  to  build  or 
much  enlarge."  The  movement  had,  in  truth,  divided  the 
Standing  Order  into  New  Lights  and  Old  Lights  ;  and,  like 
all  family  quarrels,  the  dissensions  between  the  two  were 
bitter.  To  escape  them  many  found  refuge  in  the  church. 
Some  of  the  dissentients  began  to  suflfer  with  churchmen 
in  the  matter  of  taxation.  No  religious  society,  of  even 
the  Standing  Order,  could  be  formed  in  any  town  and  yet 
claim  exemption  from  taxation  to  support  the  first  existing 
society.  This  law  of  i  742  was  used  by  those  in  power  to 
crush  out  the  new  votaries  of  enthusiasm  by  preventing 
them  from  erecting  new  churches  for  themselves.  The 
law,  also,  of  1 746,  in  its  attempt  to  reach  the  seceding  New 
Lights,  indirectly  excluded  churchmen,  as  not  being  mem- 
bers of  the  first  society,  from  any  share  in  levying  the  taxes 
which  they  were  obliged  to  pay  for  the  common  support 
of  religion.  Their  taxes,  as  has  been  earlier  explained, 
were  applied  to  their  own  use  since  the  law  of  1727;  but 
they  were  not  allowed  any  voice  in  determining  what  those 
taxes  should  be.  The  progress  of  the  church  was,  how- 
ever, not  impeded. 
/  In  1742,  just  twenty  years  after  Johnson  had  begun  his 
/  ministry  as  the  only  Episcopal  minister  in  the  colony, 
churchmen  could  report  fourteen  churches  built  and  build- 
ing, served  by  seven  clergymen.  They  now  desired  the 
appointment  of  a  special  commissary  for  Connecticut. 
Rev.  Roger  Price,  of  Boston,  was  commissary  for  all  New 
England,  but  he  lived  at  too  great  a  distance  to  be  an 
effective  of^cer.  Mr.  Morris,  the  one  English  clergy- 
man in  the  colony,  disliked  Johnson's  nomination  as 
commissary,  on  account  of  his  conciliatory  attitude  to- 
ward the  Congregationalists.  He  alone  of  all  the  clergy 
opposed  his  appointment,  showing  his  unfortunate  insular- 
ity in  an  attitude  of  harsh  opposition  to  all  outside  the 


CAUSES  FOR  DESIRING  A   BISHOP.  145 

church,  and  making  apparent,  by  his  exception  to  the  rule, 
the  inestimable  advantage  Connecticut  enjoyed  in  having 
a  native  and  not  an  imported  clergy.  An  unwillingness  on 
the  part  of  the  S.  P.  G.  to  restrict  the  original  jurisdiction 
of  Mr.  Price  prevented  Johnson's  appointment;  but  the 
request  for  it  reveals  the  spirit  of  confidence  and  hope  to 
which  the  church  which  made  it  had  attained. 

The  increase  in  the  number  of  missionaries  did  not,  un- 
fortunately, keep  pace  with  the  multiplication  of  parishes. 
Caner,  who  for  twenty  years  had  labored  faithfully  at 
Fairfield,  and  who  was  the  most  popular  church  preacher 
in  the  colony,  removed  to  Boston  and  became  rector  of 
King's  Chapel.  The  elder  Seabury  having  removed  to 
Long  Island,  left  Mr.  Punderson  the  only  church  mission- 
ary in  the  eastern  part  of  the  colony.  Several  seceding 
Congregational  ministers,  graduates  of  Yale,  were,  after 
ordination,  appointed  missionaries  in  other  colonies,  so  that 
Johnson  did  not  fail  to  impress  upon  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  the  great  importance  of  having  a  resident 
bishop.  He  wrote:  "I  am  persuaded  at  this  juncture 
there  are  several  dissenting  teachers  who  would  take 
orders  if  they  could  have  them  by  riding,  though  it  were 
three  or  four  hundred  miles,  and  would  bring  all  their 
people  with  them  that  are  not  infatuated  with  this  New 
Light.  An  English  bishop  would  be  the  most  effectual 
means  to  vastly  enlarge  the  church." 

In  1744  a  threatened  revisitation  of  Connecticut  by 
Whitefield  led  the  General  Association  of  Congregational 
Ministers  to  declare  that  "  it  would  be  by  no  means  advisa- 
ble for  any  of  their  ministers  to  admit  him  into  their  pulpits, 
or  for  any  of  their  people  to  attend  his  ministrations."  At 
Yale  College,  also.  President  Clap  and  the  tutors  signed  a 
declaration  against  his  principles.  Both  these  declarations 
tended  to  inspire  confidence  in  the  order,  doctrine,  and 


146  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

worship  of  the  church,  which  Whitefield  had  so  vigorously- 
denounced,  and  which  had  stood  aloof  from  the  wild 
fanaticism  of  his  followers.  Concerning  New  Haven  it- 
self, where  there  was  as  yet  no  Episcopal  church,  Johnson 
writes  about  this  time :  "  A  love  to  the  church  is  gaining 
in  the  college ;  and  four  more,  whose  names  are  Allen, 
Lloyd,  Sturgeon,  and  Chandler,  have  declared  themselves 
candidates  for  holy  orders  ;  and  there  seems  a  very  growing 
disposition  toward  the  church  in  the  town  of  New  Haven, 
as  well  as  in  the  college ;  so  that  I  hope  ere  long  there  will 
be  a  flourishing  church  there."  This  hope  was  not  to  be 
fulfilled  until  after  twenty  churches  had  been  built  in  other 
parts  of  the  colony.  A  movement  looking  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  church  in  New  Haven  had  been  made  as  early 
as  1735  by  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Arnold,  who,  while  in  Eng- 
land awaiting  ordination,  obtained  from  William  Gregson, 
a  descendant  of  Thomas  Gregson,  one  of  the  original 
settlers  of  New  Haven,  a  deed  of  a  lot  of  an  acre  and 
three  quarters,  now  known  as  the  "  glebe  property,"  on 
the  corner  of  Church  and  Chapel  streets.  This  was  con- 
veyed in  trust  for  the  building  of  a  church  and  parson- 
age, for  the  laying  out  of  a  churchyard  for  the  poor,  and 
to  serve  as  a  glebe  for  the  support  of  the  church.  The 
deed,  however,  lacked  the  proper  acknowledgment;  and 
the  land  having  been  occupied  for  many  years  by  others, 
its  possession  by  the  church  was  resisted.  In  1752,  how- 
ever, twenty  square  rods  of  land  were  bought  for  two  hun- 
dred pounds  by  Enos  Ailing  and  Isaac  Doolittle,  opposite 
Gregson's  Corner,  "for  the  building  of  a  house  for  public 
worship  agreeable  and  according  to  the  Establishment  of 
the  Church  of  England."  The  title  was  not  completed  and 
confirmed  till  1756.  Trinity  parish  having  been  previously 
formed,  a  church  of  wood  was  built  for  it,  the  door-sill  of 


JOHNSON  MADE  PRESIDENT  OF  KING'S  COLLEGE,    i^y 

which  was  said  to  have  been  large  enough  to  furnish  seats 
for  all  the  men  of  the  Episcopal  families  in  the  town. 

Johnson  was  greatly  interested  in  this  church,  on  account 
of  its  immediate  proximity  to  the  college ;  and  Mr.  Punder- 
son,  who  had  been  an  itinerant  missionary,  was,  at  his  own 
request,  appointed  missionary  to  the  church  at  New  Haven, 
as  well  as  to  Guilford  and  Bradford^  in  the  neighborhood; 
This  establishment  of  a  church  in  New  Haven  was  an  im- 
portant advance,  and  was  a  decided  help  to  the  church  in 
all  the  surrounding  localities.  The  church  would  have 
grown  more  rapidly  could  it  have  obtained  more  mission- 
aries; but  already,  several  years  before  the  first  Trinity 
Church  was  built,  in  1753,  Lamson,  Dibden,  Fowle,  Mans- 
field, and  Camp  had  been  added  to  the  corps  of  clergy,  and 
churches  had  been  built  at  Stamford,  Strathfield  (Bridge- 
port), Guilford,  Norwich,  Litchfield,  and  Middletown.  It 
was  now  fairly  and  widely  distributed,  and  the  controversies 
and  conflicts,  in  which  from  time  to  time  it  was  necessarily 
engaged,  augmented  and  strengthened  it.  It  was  to  meet 
a  sore  loss  in  the  removal  of  its  fostering  father.  Dr.  John- 
son was  called  to  New  York  to  be  first  president  of  King's 
(now  Columbia)  College.  He  had  declined  the  invitation 
of  Franklin  to  be  Provost  of  the  College  and  Academy  of 
Philadelphia;  but  he  accepted  the  appointment  in  New 
York  for  the  purpose  of  forwarding  the  education  of  a 
church  clergy  free  from  the  restrictions  imposed  upon  them 
in  the  colleges  of  other  denominations.  These  naturally 
guarded  their  own  interests ;  and  this  was  sometimes 
thought  to  necessitate  legislation  to  restrict  the  spread  of 
Episcopal  churchmanship. 

It  had  been  settled  that  the  president  of  King's  College 
should  be  in  communion  with  the  Church  of  England,  and 
that  the  liturgy  of  the  church  should  be  used  at  morning 


148  PROTESTANl^  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap,  v, 

and  evening  prayers ;  the  church  would  be  in  the  ascend- 
ancy, and  its  members  the  objects  of  fostering  care.  At 
New  Haven  Episcopal  students  were  fined  for  attending 
Episcopal  services  unless  they  were  communicants,  and 
then  could  only  go  on  sacrament  Sundays,  which  were 
rare,  and  were  obliged  to  recite  frequently  the  Westminster 
Confession  of  Faith  as  part  of  the  college  curriculum. 
Thus,  after  thirty-one  years  of  indefatigable  service  at 
Stratford,  Johnson  went  forth  to  another  colony  to  guard 
and  advance  the  interests  of  education  in  behalf  of  the 
church.  He  was  made  assistant  minister  of  Trinity  Church, 
New  York,  as  well  as  president  of  the  college ;  and  he  en- 
tered on  his  duties  in  1754.  He  had  during  his  ministry 
in  Stratford  admitted  four  hundred  and  forty-two  persons 
to  the  holy  communion,  and  fourteen  of  this  number  had 
crossed  the  ocean  for  holy  orders.  He  had  labored  all  over 
the  colony  for  his  church,  and  had  ministered  faithfully  to 
the  Indians  and  negroes  within  his  reach. 

He  was  followed  at  Stratford  by  Rev.  Edward  Winslow, 
a  graduate  of  Harvard,  an  excellent  preacher,  and  an  ad- 
mirable man.  He  soon  succeeded  in  securing  an  organ 
for  his  church,  the  first  used  in  public  worship  in  Connec- 
ticut. It  was  a  great  event  in  its  influence  upon  worship, 
which  must  have  seemed  bare  indeed  when  chant  and  Te 
Deum  and  Psalter  and  Gloria  were  all  said  instead  of  sung. 

Throughout  the  colony  the  record  of  growth  was  hence- 
forth continuous.  The  church  pushed  its  way  out  into  all 
the  older  parts  of  the  colony,  and  up  into  the  newer  and 
last-settled  portions  of  it  in  the  northwestern  corner,  as  in 
Cornwall,  Sharon,  and  Kent.  Where  missionaries  could 
not  be  had,  lay  readers  kept  up  the  services,  and  persever- 
ance and  devotion  met  a  slow  but  sure  reward.  The  charge 
of  proselyting  was  met  by  Johnson  in  New  York  by  a  vin- 
dication of  his  brethren,  sent  to  Archbishop  Seeker,  in  which 


CHARGE   OF  PROSELYTING.  1 49 

he  declares  :  "I  never  once  tried  to  proselyte  dissenters,  nor 
do  I  believe  any  of  the  other  ministers  did.  So  far  were 
we  from  promoting  or  taking  advantage  of  any  quarrels 
that  happened  among  themselves  that  in  many  instances 
we  obliged  them  to  accommodate  matters  with  their  former 
brethren  before  we  would  receive  them  to  our  communion." 
Still  no  convert  was  repelled  by  a  cold  reception,  and  ag- 
gressive energy  was  a  prominent  characteristic  of  the  whole 
church. 

Solomon  Palmer,  who  had  long  served  as  Congregational 
minister  in  Cornwall,  traversed  Litchfield  County  after  his 
ordination,  and  was  a  pioneer  of  the  church  in  several 
places  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  as  well  as  in  north- 
ern Connecticut.  The  parishes  of  the  southern  shore,  from 
Norwich  to  Greenwich,  were  constantly  increasing  in  num- 
bers and  strength  ;  w.hile  in  the  interior,  at  Danbury  and 
Newtown  and  other  places,  the  unwearied  efforts  of  the 
faithful  missionaries,  Beach  and  Leaming  and  Dibblee,  were 
rewarded  by  an  ever-increasing  strength.  Leaming,  who 
was,  after  the  Revolution,  a  prominent  candidate  for  first 
Bishop  of  Connecticut,  wrote  to  England,  urging  the  need 
in  the  colony  of  a  bishop  to  confirm,  ordain,  and  govern. 
"  Every  Body,"  he  said, "  wants  a  Head  ;  and  when  we  have 
one,  may  we  have  a  sound  head  and  a  religious  heart."  It 
was  not  to  be  until  the  severance  from  the  mother-country. 
Then  the  mother  could  grant  to  the  alien  what  she  denied 
to  the  child.  At  this  period  there  is  this  excuse,  if  excuse 
it  be,  for  the  indifference  of  England  to  this  appeal.  A 
special  violence  of  opposition  had  arisen  on  the  part  of 
the  Congregationalists  to  having  a  bishop  sent.  England 
would  not  incense  a  majority  of  the  colony ;  and  as  in 
this  matter  the  State  ruled,  the  Church  had  to  stand  for  a 
system  the  chief  feature  of  which  was  denied  them.  It  is 
amazing  that  the  churchmen  were  not  utterly  disheart- 


150  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

ened ;  but  that  they  never  were.  "  Perplexed,  but  not  in 
despair,"  was  a  text  they  illustrated  and  understood.  Their 
strength  lay  in  their  unity  and  in  the  dissensions,  now  very 
rife,  among  their  adversaries.  The  intense  and  bitter  op- 
position of  the  conservatives  to  the  enthusiasts  waxed 
hotter  and  hotter.  "  They  may  really  thank  themselves," 
wrote  Winslow,  Johnson's  successor  at  Stratford,  "  for  no 
small  part  of  the  growth  of  the  church,  at  which  they  are 
now  so  enraged.  Their  continual  disputes  and  endless 
dissensions  have  drawn  sensible  people  and  serious  persons 
to  take  refuge  in  our  glorious  constitution.  The  increase 
the  church  has  received  by  means  of  these  confusions  has 
been  by  its  obvious  superior  worth  and  excellence." 

It  was  now  that  the  great  leader  of  Connecticut  church- 
men returned  to  be  once  more  among  them.  After  going 
to  New  York  he  had  lost  his  younger  son  while  seeking 
orders  in  England ;  and  his  second  wife  was  also  taken  by 
the  same  dire  disease,  smallpox.  He  wearied  of  the  college 
duties,  which  were  irksome  to  a  man  of  sixty-seven,  and 
of  the  publicity  and  distractions  of  a  city  life.  He  resigned 
the  presidency  of  King's  College,  and  returned  to  Stratford, 
where,  on  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Winslow  to  Massachusetts, 
he  was  soon  made  once  more  rector  of  the  parish.  His 
old  friend  Wetmore,  who  had  stood  by  the  first  dissentients 
from  Congregationalism  in  the  library  of  Yale  College,  now 
died  of  smallpox  at  Rye,  N.  Y.,  on  the  border  of  Connecti- 
cut; and  Mr.  Punderson  went  to  Rye  from  New  Haven, 
and  Mr.  Palmer  took  his  place  in  Trinity  Church.  The 
more  vigorous  prosecution  of  this  New  Haven  mission 
under  the  very  shadow  of  Yale  College  raised  anew  the 
assaults  made  from  time  to  time  on  the  Venerable  Society, 
which  in  great  part  supported  it.  The  answers  which  John- 
son and  Beach,  of  Connecticut,  and  Apthorp,  of  Massachu- 
setts, made  to  Mayhew  attracted  notice,  even  in  England. 


EFFECT  OF   THE   STAMP  ACT  1%5.  151 

Archbishop  Seeker  entered  the  Hsts,  and  gave  so  temperate 
and  clear  a  statement  of  the  objects  and  methods  of  the 
society  as  to  completely  answer  Mayhew,  who  insisted 
that  the  society  intended  to  usurp  authority  over  the 
various  Christian  communities  settled  in  America.  In  this 
rejoinder  of  the  archbishop  there  occurred  a  statement  in- 
tended to  quiet  the  apprehensions  of  those  who,  like  May- 
hew,  professed  to  dread  the  introduction  of  bishops  as 
an  hierarchical  attempt  to  overthrow  religious  liberty  in 
America.  He  said  such  American  bishops,  were  intended 
to,  "  have  no  converse  in  the  least  with  any  persons  who 
do  not  profess  themselves  to  be  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, but  may  ordain  ministers  for  such  as  do ;  may  con- 
firm, and  take  such  oversight  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  as 
the  Bishop  of  London's  commissaries  have  taken  without 
offense.  But  it  is  not  in  the  least  desired  that  they 
should  .  .  .  infringe  or  diminish  any  privileges  or  liberties 
enjoyed  by  any  of  the  laity,  even  of  our  own  communion. 
This  is  the  only  scheme  that  has  been  planned  for  bishops 
in  America ;  and  whoever  has  heard  of  any  other  has  been 
misinformed  through  mistake  or  design." 

Such,  then,  was  the  position  of  the  church  in  Con- 
necticut up  to  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act  by  Parliament 
(i  765).  Universal  excitement  was  aroused  throughout  the 
colonies  in  consequence  of  that  act.  A  general  Congress 
of  the  colonies  now  met  for  the  first  time  in  New  York ; 
and  the  eldest  son  of  Dr.  Johnson  was  sent  by  the  As- 
sembly of  Connecticut  to  represent  the  colony.  His  father 
sympathized  with  the  patriots ;  but  the  expressions  of 
various  missionaries  in  their  communications  to  the  Vener- 
able Society  at  this  time  indicated  a  sympathy  with  the 
mother-country  which  foretold  what  their  course  would  be 
in  the  coming  Revolution,  yet  ten  years  off.  The  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act  by  Parliament  a  year  later,  accompanied  by 


152  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  v. 

the  declaration  that  "  Parliament  had  the  right  to  bind  the 
colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever,"  allayed  the  temporary 
excitement  of  the  people,  but  left  anxious  forebodings  in 
the  minds  of  the  leaders ;  for  the  claim  was  rightly  re- 
garded as  inconsistent  with  liberty.  The  clergy  of  Con- 
necticut, amid  this  commotion,  were  more  than  ever  im- 
pressed with  the  necessity  of  having  a  bishop  among  them  to 
counsel  their  action  and  hold  them  together.  In  October, 
1 766,  a  convention  was  held  at  Stratford,  where  twelve  of 
them  were  present,  which  prepared  an  address  to  the  Bishop 
of  London,  urging  action  on  this  subject.  The  only  answer 
was  a  resolution  of  the  Venerable  Society  not  to  establish 
any  more  missions  in  New  England.  Private  and  public 
appeals  continued  to  be  made  for  the  episcopate.  Dr. 
Johnson  wrote  strongly  to  the  archbishop  once  more.  He 
recalled  the  fact  that  the"  last  two  candidates  ordained  by 
his  Grace  were  lost  by  shipwreck  on  their  return.  He 
recounted  the  experiences  of  the  last  forty  years,  wherein 
ten  candidates  out  of  fifty  had  been  lost  to  the  church 
through  the  "perils  of  the  sea,"  and  ended  by  saying: 
"  If  such  a  thing  as  sending  one  or  two  bishops  can  at  all 
be  done  for  us,  this  article  of  thine,  now  that  all  America 
are  overflowing  with  joy  for  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act, 
would  be  the  happiest  juncture  for  it  that  could  be,  for  I 
believe  they  would  rather  twenty  bishops  were  sent  than 
the  act  enforced." 

Dr.  Chauncy,  the  celebrated  Congregational  divine  of 
Boston,  about  this  time  published  a  "  Letter  to  a  Friend," 
in  which  he  stated  that  the  sole  design  of  the  Venerable 
Society  was  "  to  episcopize  the  colonies."  After  a  consul- 
tation of  the  clergy,  Dr.  Johnson  was  asked  to  publish  a 
pamphlet  explaining  the  plan  on  which  American  bishops 
had  been  requested,  stating  the  reasons  for  the  request,  and 
answering  objections.     Johnson  felt  physically  unable  to 


DR.   CHANDLER'S  "APPEAL    TO    THE  PUBLIC:'      1 53 

undertake  the  task ;  and  Dr.  Chandler,  of  EHzabethtown, 
N.  J.,  at  his  request,  and  that  of  many  of  the  clergy  of 
New  York  and  New  Jersey,  published  an  "  Appeal  to  the 
PubHc,"  in  which  he  pointed  out  how  needless  were  alarms 
at  the  thought  of  an  American  episcopate.  Some  months 
after  the  appearance  of  the  "  Appeal,"  the  press  of  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston,  inflamed  mofe  with  poHti- 
cal  than  theological  passion,  launched  their  thunders  at  it. 
Dr.  Chauncy  put  forth  a  pamphlet  of  two  hundred  pages, 
entitled  "  The  Appeal  to  the  Public  Answered,"  in  which 
he  declared,  with  heat  generated  by  both  political  and 
ecclesiastical  passion,  "  We  are  fully  persuaded,  as  if  they 
had  openly  said  it,  that  they  have  in  view  nothing  short  of 
a  complete  church  hierarchy,  .  .  .  with  a  large  revenue 
for  their  grand  support,  and  with  the  assurance  of  no  other 
privilege  to  dissenters  but  that  of  a  bare  toleration."  This 
set  at  liberty  a  series  of  lively  papers,  full  of  stinging  per- 
sonalities and  uncharitable  aspersions  of  motives,  in  which 
the  old  Adam  got  very  much  the  better  of  the  young 
Melanchthon.  Dr.  Chandler,  however,  published  a  digni- 
fied reply,  called  "The  Appeal  Defended,"  and  in  1771 
"The  Appeal  Further  Defended,"  in  answer  to  a  previous 
reply  of  his  adversary.  This  closed  the  controversy,  which, 
like  most  controversies  of  the  kind,  kindled  a  great  deal  of 
animosity  and  probably  changed  the  opinion  of  no  single 
soul. 

When,  late  in  1766,  shortly  after  the  formal  addresses 
of  the  clergy  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  Dr.  Johnson's  son, 
William  Samuel  Johnson,  left  for  England  as  a  special  agent 
of  Connecticut  in  an  important  cause  before  the  Lords  in 
Council,  he,  being  a  churchman,  was  regarded  with  great 
interest  by  the  authorities  of  the  colony  as  a  source  of 
information  concerning  ecclesiastical  affairs.  Governor 
Trumbull  wrote  to  him  to  inquire  about  the  intentions 


154  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

of  the  English  government  concerning  the  American  bish- 
ops; and  Mr.  Johnson  answered  in  the  same  strain  as 
characterized  Dr.  Chandler's  "  Appeal."  In  notifying  the 
governor  that  there  was  no  intention  at  that  time  to  send 
bishops  to  America,  he  stated  with  the  utmost  distinctness 
that  "  it  had  been  merely  a  religious,  and  in  no  respect  a 
political  scheme."  "  As  I  am  myself,"  he  continued,  "  of 
the  Church  of  England,  you  will  not  doubt  that  I  have  had 
the  fullest  opportunity  to  be  intimately  acquainted  with  all 
the  stages  that  have  ever  been  taken  in  this  affair,  and  you 
may  rely  upon  it  that  it  never  was,  nor  is,  the  intention  or 
even  wish  of  those  who  have  been  most  sanguine  in  the 
matter  that  American  bishops  should  have  any,  the  least 
degree  of  secular  power  of  any  nature  or  kind  whatsoever, 
much  less  any  measure  of  concern  or  connection  with 
Christians  of  any  other  denomination,  nor  even  any  power, 
properly  so  called,  over  the  laity  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. They  wish  them  to  have  merely  the  spiritual 
powers  which  are  incident  to  the  episcopal  character  as 
such,  which,  in  the  ideas  of  that  church,  are  those  of 
ordination  and  confirmation,  and  of  presiding  over  and 
governing  the  clergy ;  which  can,  of  course,  relate  to  those 
of  that  profession  only  who  are  its  voluntary  subjects,  and 
can  affect  nobody  else.  More  than  this  would  be  thought 
rather  disadvantageous  than  beneficial,  and,  I  assure  you, 
would  be  opposed  by  no  man  with  more  zeal  than  myself, 
even  as  a  friend  to  the  Church  of  England.  Nay,  I  have 
the  strongest  grounds  to  assure  you  that  more  would  not 
be  accepted  by  those  who  understand  and  wish  well  to  the 
design,  were  it  even  offered." 

After  such  assurances  by  such  a  man,  the  authorities 
of  Connecticut  could  have  no  excuse  for  cherishing  the 
prejudices  so  apparent  in  Dr.  Chauncy's  letter,  save  that- 
inveterate  and  long-cherished,   nay,  hereditary  dislike  of 


LAST  EFFORTS  BEFORE    THE  REVOLUTION.  155 

prelacy,  begotten  of  the  persecution  of  their  forefathers  in 
England.  The  feeling  of  dread  and  opposition,  however, 
continued,  and  the  expression  of  it  weighed  heavily  with 
the  political  leaders  of  the  English  state.  Archbishop 
Seeker  might  urge  and  bequeath  a  thousand  pounds  to- 
ward the  establishment  of  an  American  bishop ;  Sherlock 
might  earnestly  petition  the  king  to  the  same  end  ;  but  the 
fear  of  offending  the  Independents,  who  constituted  the 
vast  majority  in  the  colony,  and  thus  hampering  political 
projects,  effectually  prevented  parliamentary  leaders  from 
even  seriously  considering  the  question. 

Notwithstanding  the  long  disappointment  of  their  hopes, 
^the  missionaries  did  not  slacken  their  zeal  in  the  mainte- 
nance and  spread  of  the  church.  Candidates  continued  to 
cross  the  sea  for  ordination.  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  old  age, 
being  relieved  from  part  of  his  parish  duties  by  his  as- 
sistant, Mr.  Kneeland,  kept  up  a  sort  of  small  divinity 
school,  training  young  men  for  holy  orders.  In  1769 
there  were  seventeen  resident  missionaries  in  Connecticut. 

The  last  new  enterprise  before  the  Revolution  was  that 
which  established  the  church  in  Pomfret,  in  the  northeastern 
part  of  the  colony,  under  the  patronage  and  generous  as- 
sistance of  Mr.  Godfrey  Malborn,  who  had  moved  there 
from  Newport,  R.  I.  He  was  a  man  of  wealth,  and  in  order 
to  avoid  contributing  to  the  town  tax  for  a  new  meeting- 
house, he  resolved  to  spend  the  amount,  and  more,  in 
building  an  Episcopal  church.  In  the  important  center, 
New  Haven,  there  was  also  decided  growth,  so  that  a  hun- 
dred Episcopal  families  were  gathered  there,  besides  thirty- 
five  at  West  Haven.  In  Newtown  Mr.  Beach  reported  not 
only  growth,  but  a  more  kindly  feeling  between  churchmen 
and  Congregationalists  ;  and  Simsbury  came  third  in  the  list 
of  the  church's  strength.  Hartford,  which  has  since  been 
such  a  center  of  Episcopal  power,  was  not  ecclesiastically 


156  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  v. 

prominent  until  after  the  war.  But  nowhere  was  the 
church  so  strong  as  in  Fairfield  County,  the  place  of  its 
first  establishment,  where  it  had  had  Johnson's  more  im- 
mediate care.  There  it  included  a  third  of  the  people.  In 
Newtown  the  church  divided  equally  the  population  with 
the  Standing  Order.  Churchmen  from  Mr.  Beach's  mis- 
sion and  from  other  fields  had  by  this  time  moved  into 
the  distant  parts  of  Massachusetts,  Vermont  and  New 
Hampshire,  and  were  from  time  to  time  visited  by  their 
former  pastors.      Thus  was  the  church  constantly  alert. 

And  now,  before  the  war  should  have  despoiled  the 
goodly  heritage  which  he  had  nurtured,  the  noble  Johnson 
was  called  home,  and  the  church  was  left  without  his  sage 
counsels  to  direct  it  in  its  most  momentous  crisis.  On  the 
morning  of  the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany  (1772)  he  suddenly 
expired  in  his  chair,  having  just  expressed  a  wish  to  die 
like  his  friend  Bishop  Berkeley,  who  had  passed  away  in 
the  same  manner.  It  was  well  that  he  went,  for  he  could 
not  have  prevented  the  calamities  of  the  war,  and  they 
would  have  rent  his  heart  asunder.  He  was  one  of  the 
noblest  men  of  his  day  and  generation,  firm  in  his  convic- 
tions, charitable  in  his  judgments,  wise  in  his  counsels,  in 
defatigable  in  his  labors,  sincere  in  his  piety,  incorruptible 
in  word  and  deed.  He  was  the  heart  and  soul  of  the 
church  movement  in  Connecticut,  but  he  never  broke  with 
his  old  friends  of  the  Standing  Order.  He  honored  Yale 
College  and  was  honored  by  it.  He  brought  up  his  son  to 
be  one  of  the  distinguished  men  of  the  colony  while  the 
colony  was  ruled  by  those  who  opposed  all  his  cherished 
ecclesiastical  convictions.  He  saw  with  clear  vision  the 
needs  of  the  church,  and  labored  assiduously  to  supply 
them.  Happily  he  was  spared  the  hour  of  her  disaster; 
but  his  influence  wrought  mightily  in  her  reconstruction 
when  once  the  time  of  her  deliverance  came.     No  name 


THE   CHURCH  DURING    THE   REVOLUTION.  157 

deserves  more  reverent  mention  in  all  the  annals  of  the 
church  in  America  than  the  name  of  Samuel  Johnson. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  the  church  which 
Johnson  had  fostered  numbered  tv^enty  clergymen  and 
forty  churches.  All  but  two  or  three  of  these  missionaries 
were  natives  of  the  colony.  The  few  English  missionaries, 
with  a  native,  Samuel  Peters,  of  Hebron,  at  their  head,  made 
themselves  especially  obnoxious  to  the  government,  and 
were  either  removed  from  the  colony  or  went  their  way  of 
themselves.  The  native  clergy  mostly  remained  at  their 
various  missons ;  but  all  sided  with  the  English  govern- 
ment. The  war  appeared  to  them  as  much  a  cause  of  the 
church  as  of  the  state.  In  great  measure  they  drew  their 
support  from  the  Venerable  Society  ;  and  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance taken  at  their  ordination  seemed  to  bind  them  to 
the  king  no  less  than  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
They  were  not  the  sole  adherents  to  the  home  government. 
A  score  of  Congregational  ministers  in  New  England  stood 
on  the  same  side.  Here,  as  in  Massachusetts,  the  number 
of  loyaHsts  was  by  no  means  inconsiderable.  When  Howe 
evacuated  Boston,  the  royal  fleet  took  with  it  eleven  hun- 
dred loyalists,  including  eighteen  clergymen.  From  Con- 
necticut there  was  no  such  exodus,  and  loyalist  and  patriot 
lived  on  side  by  side.  But  the  opposition  to  the  war  was 
far  greater  than  in  Massachusetts ;  and  even  there  the 
bill  sanctioning  the  war  was  twice  defeated  before  it  was 
finally  passed.  Indeed,  in  the  early  years  of  the  war,  forty 
thousand  Tories  enlisted  on  the  king's  side ;  and  in  its  last 
year,  when  New  York  was  evacuated,  ten  thousand  left  the 
city.  When  Inglis,  the  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  reached 
Nova  Scotia  in  1 783,  thirty  thousand  refugees  had  preceded 
him.  The  Episcopal  clergy  were  thus  not  exceptionally 
singular  in  their  attachment  to  the  crown.  The  excep- 
tional feature  was  that  while  other  bodies  were  divided, 


158  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chai-.  v. 

Episcopal  clergymen  at  the  North  were  of  one  heart  and 
mind. 

The  church  congregations  were  greatly  divided  in  senti- 
ment. In  Derby,  Mansfield  reported  only  twenty  families, 
out  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty  of  his  flock,  as  siding 
with  the  Revolution.  In  Stratford,  only  about  ten  miles 
distant,  not  a  man  dissented  from  the  Revolutionary  meas- 
ures. Most  of  the  clergy  held  their  peace,  or  took  no  act- 
ive part  in  the  movements  of  the  hour.  Some  were  less 
prudent.  Dr.  Mansfield,  of  Derby,  in  writing  to  Governor 
Tryon,  of  New  York,  concerning  the  indignities  shown  to 
loyal  members  of  his  flock,  suggested  measures  for  reduc- 
ing the  colony  to  obedience.  His  letter  was  discovered, 
and,  to  escape  punishment  and  imprisonment,  he  had  to 
flee  to  Long  Island.  Mr.  Beach,  of  Newtown,  who  was 
very  outspoken  in  the  pulpit  and  out  of  it,  was  at  one  time 
put  under  strict  guard.  Mr.  Nile,  of  Simsbury,  suspected 
of  assisting  royalist  prisoners  to  escape,  was  carried  a 
prisoner  to  Hartford  jail.  Mr.  Leaming,  who  wrote 
vigorously  for  the  royal  cause,  had  his  house  mobbed  and 
was  lodged  in  jail.  After  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, some  of  the  clergy  were  pulled  out  of  their  reading- 
desks  for  using  the  prayer  for  the  king. 

These  men  suffered  for  political  causes,  as  is  inevitable 
in  such  a  war.  There  was  doubtless  much  needless  vio- 
lence ;  but  the  heat  engendered  of  war  is  not  nice  in  its 
discrimination.  Passion  was  not  the  prerogative  of  one 
party  only.  Mr.  Beach,  of  Newtown,  venerable  and  ex- 
cellent man  that  he  was,  gave  great  offense  to  the  Sons  of 
Liberty  by  his  outspoken  defiance,  and  declared  that  "  he 
would  do  his  duty,  and  preach  and  pray  for  the  king,  till 
the  rebels  cut  out  his  tongue."  It  is  said  that  some  mis- 
creant fired  once  at  him  while  officiating  in  Redding,  the 
ball  lodging  in  the  sounding-board.    The  intrepid  old  man 


SUSPENSIOiV  OF  SERVICES.  159 

paused  merely  to  repeat  the  text,  "  Fear  not  them  which 
kill  the  body,  and  are  not  able  to  kill  the  soul,"  and  then 
went  on  with  the  service  as  though  nothing  had  happened. 
The  indiscretions,  to  say  the  least,  of  these  ardent  cleri- 
cal loyalists  were  the  cause  of  much  suffering  to  their  more 
prudent  brethren.  Several  of  the  missionaries  were  for- 
bidden to  go  beyond  their  respective  missions,  and  were 
sometimes  not  allowed  to  visit  a  parishioner  without  leave 
of  the  selectmen  of  the  town.  They  were  in  great  straits 
from  their  inability  to  draw  their  salaries  from  the  Vener- 
able Society ;  and  as  they  could  not  pray  in  public  for  the 
king  and  royal  famil}^,  as  the  liturgy  prescribed,  without 
great  danger  to  property,  if  not  to  life,  a  convention  held 
in  New  Haven  in  July,  1776  (after  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence), resolved  to  suspend  public  worship.  In  con- 
sequence all  the  churches  in  Connecticut,  except  those 
under  Mr.  Beach,  were  for  a  time  closed.  Here,  then,  was 
a  church  with  clergy  suspected  and  denounced,  and  with 
ministerial  functions  quite  suspended.  Some,  after  a  time, 
like  Mr.  Tyler,  of  Norwich,  were  wise  enough  to  decide  to 
read  the  service,  omitting  the  obnoxious  prayers,  conclud- 
ing, as  in  his  own  words,  "  that  the  cause  of  religion  ought 
not  to  be  annihilated  on  a  civil  account."  In  November, 
1778,  his  church  was  reopened.  In  New  Haven  Mr.  Hub- 
bard took  a  like  course  in  Trinity  Church,  and  prayed 
for  "  Congress  and  the  free  and  independent  States  of 
America."  Others,  like  Mr.  Graves,  of  Norwich,  deemed 
such  usage  or  disusage  sacrilege,  and  after  being  roughly 
handled  in  church,  "  and  brought  expeditiously  to  the  level 
of  the  floor,"  were  finally  obliged  to  flee  to  New  York. 
Mr,  Sayre,  of  Fairfield,  took  a  different  course.  He  held 
Sunday  services  in  church,  but  would  not  use  any  part  of 
the  liturgy,  for  he  would  not  mutilate  it.  He  read  Scrip- 
ture lessons  and  psalms  and  the  homilies,  and  expounded 


l6o  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  v. 

the  catechism,  thus,  as  he  says,  "  enjoying  one  of  the  two 
general  designs  of  public  rehgious  meetings,  pubHc  instruc- 
tion ;  the  other,  to  wit,  pubHc  worship,  was  inadmissible  in 
our  circumstances."  He,  however,  had  the  misfortune  to 
lose  both  his  church  and  parsonage  by  the  flames  of  the 
conflagration  kindled  by  the  direction  of  General  Tryon  to 
destroy  Fairfield,  though  it  had  been  designed  to  save  the 
church  property.  The  church  at  Norwalk  was  destroyed 
in  the  same  manner  by  the  same  hands.  The  church  suf- 
fered by  both  its  friends  and  its  enemies. 

In  other  places,  where  the  churches  were  not  destroyed, 
they  were  defaced  and  pillaged,  as  at  Danbury  by  the 
British,  and  at  Watertown  and  Litchfield  by  the  patriots. 
Mr.  Beach  wrote  in  1781  to  the  secretary  of  the  Venerable 
Society :  "  Newtown  and  Redding  are  the  only  parts  of 
New  England,  I  believe,  that  have  refused  to  comply  with 
the  doings  of  Congress.  My  two  congregations  are  grow- 
ing, at  Redding  being  commonly  about  three  hundred,  at 
Newtown  six  hundred."  He  died  before  the  war  ended, 
and  was  spared  the  triumph  of  his  countrymen.  What  he 
did  and  suff'ered  was  for  conscience'  sake ;  and  the  intre- 
pidity of  his  character  commands  universal  respect,  even 
from  those  who  deplore  his  mistaken  convictions. 

The  missionaries  held  on  tenaciously  to  their  course 
through  the  buffetings  of  both  sides  in  the  contest.  As  a 
last  touch  of  misfortune,  the  church  in  New  London  was 
burned  in  the  conflagration  kindled  by  Benedict  Arnold, 
who  had  been  sent  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton  to  make  a  diver- 
sion which  might  delay  or  frustrate  Washington's  expedi- 
tion to  Yorktown  and  the  capture  of  Cornwallis.  Thus 
three  of  the  largest  churches  were  destroyed  by  those  whom 
the  clergy  favored  and  upheld,  and  many  churchmen  fell 
in  the  atrocious  and  fratricidal  massacre  at  Groton. 

When  the  war  closed  it  found  the  church  "  cast  down, 


THE   CHURCH  AT  CLOSE    OE  REVOLUTION.         l6l 

but  not  destroyed."  Three  of  the  principal  churches  had 
been  burned  by  the  British.  The  missionaries  Peters, 
Graves,  and  Sayre  had  fled.  Two,  Beach  and  Kneeland, 
had  died.  Fourteen,  however,  were  in  their  parishes. 
Learning  being  still  in  New  York,  whither  he  had  gone 
after  the  burning  of  his  church  at  Norwalk  by  General 
Tryon.  The  severance  of  the  tie  to  the  mother-country 
had  cut  the  bond  which  joined  the  missionaries  to  the 
Venerable  Society,  as  the  charter  of  that  society  restricted 
its  contributions  to  missions  within  the  realm  of  Great 
Britain.  Hence  their  salaries  were  gone,  their  numbers 
depleted,  and  their  churches,  to  some  extent,  destroyed  or 
dilapidated ;  and  those  who  remained  were  in  ill  favor  by 
reason  of  their  attachment  to  the  losing  side.  Whatever 
they  had  lost,  however,  they  had  not  lost  heart.  With 
indomitable  pluck,  they  prepared  to  carry  on  their  cause 
with  yet  more  effective  weapons  than  they  had  heretofore 
possessed.  Their  prompt  action  looking  to  the  resuscita- 
tion of  the  church,  when  once  hostilities  had  ceased,  be- 
longs to  the  period  not  of  its  colonial  history,  but  of  its 
reconstruction  under  the  auspices  of  national  independence. 
We  therefore  close  the  history  of  the  English  Church  in 
Connecticut  at  this  point,  when  it  ceased  to  be  English 
and  began  to  be  American  ;  but  not  without  a  tribute  to 
that  sturdy  steadfastness  in  the  day  of  its  incompleteness 
which  was  the  sure  prophecy  of  its  intrepid  advance  in  the 
day  of  its  completed  organization. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    COLONIAL   CHURCH    IN   NEW   YORK. 

The  history  of  the  Church  of  England  in  New  York 
really  begins  in  1693,  thirty  years  after  the  English  had 
wrested  the  province  from  the  Dutch.  In  1609  Henry 
Hudson,  an  English  mariner,  sailing  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Amsterdam  directors  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Com- 
pany, discovered  the  island  of  Manhattan,  and  ascended 
the  Hudson  River  as  far  as  the  present  site  of  Albany.  In 
1623  the  first  real  attempts  to  colonize  New  Netherland 
began.  Then  a  company  of  Belgian  Protestants,  called 
Walloons,  was  sent  over,  eight  of  them  remaining  on 
Manhattan  Island,  and  part  ascending  the  river  to  the 
present  site  of  Albany,  where  they  built  Fort  Orange. 
Peter  Minuit,  a  director  of  the  company,  came  in  1626  and 
bought  the  island  of  Manhattan  of  the  natives  for  twenty- 
four  dollars.  In  1628  Michaelius,  a  minister  of  the  Re- 
formed Church,  arrived,  and  organized  a  church  with  fifty 
communicants;  and  in  1656  there  were  four  Dutch 
clergymen  in  New  Netherland  sent  out  by  the  Classes  of 
Amsterdam.^ 

In  1647  Peter  Stuyvesant  became  governor;  an  honest 
and  passionate  man,  strenuously  opposed  to  popular  rights. 
He  warred  with  the  Swedes  and  extended  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Dutch  over  their  territory  on  the  Delaware.  He 
was  intolerant  to  the  Lutherans  and  the  Baptists,  and  fined, 

'  Fisher,  "  Colonial  Era,"  p.  i8i, 
162 


ENGLISH  CONQUEST  OF  NEW   YORK.  163 

whipped,  imprisoned,  and  banished  Quakers,  after  Massa- 
chusetts fashion.  Persecutions  only  ceased  when,  in  1663, 
the  company  gave  Stuyvesant  to  understand  that  they 
must  cease. 

The  character  of  his  administration  explains  the  easy 
conquest  of  the  country  by  the  English,  as  well  as  accounts 
for  the  occasion  of  it.  It  was  due  mainly  to  commercial 
rivalry.  Charles  II.  had  made  a  grant  of  the  territory 
lying  between  the  Connecticut  and  Delaware  rivers,  com- 
prehending Long  Island,  to  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  York. 
The  duke  determined,  in  the  interests  of  the  Navigation 
Act,  to  assert  his  claims  and  give  England  and  her  Ameri- 
can colonies  the  benefit  of  free  trading  with  the  region  held 
by  the  Dutch.  In  the  meantime  it  was  known  that  the 
commerce  of  New  Netherland  had  not  flourished  under 
the  rule  of  the  West  India  Company,  and  that  the  people, 
comparing  their  situation  with  New  England,  which  now 
contained  over  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  to  seven 
thousand  in  New  Netherland,  were  discontented.  When, 
therefore,  in  1663,  the  Duke  of  York  sent  four  ships,  con- 
taining four  hundred  and  fifty  regular  troops,  to  take  pos- 
session, he  found  an  easy  prey.  Stuyvesant  prepared  to 
resist  with  spirit,  but  yielded  the  place  at  the  solicitation 
of  the  authorities  and  clergy  of  the  city,  who,  together  with 
the  officers  of  the  burgher  guard,  saw  that  surrender  was 
inevitable.  Fort  Orange,  up  the  Hudson,  and  the  forts  on 
the  Delaware  were  shortly  taken  ;  and  the  province,  as  well 
as  New  Amsterdam,  was  henceforth  called  New  York.  Al- 
bany was  the  name  given  to  Fort  Orange,  that  being  the 
second  title  of  the  duke. 

The  internal  dissensions  already  mentioned,  together 
with  the  neglect  of  the  Dutch  home  government,  easily  rec- 
onciled the  people  to  the  change,  especially  as  the  property 
and  the  civil  rights  of  the  citizens  were  guaranteed.     There 


t64  PROTESTANT  episcopal    CHURCH.       [Chap.  vi. 

was  no  religious  establishment;  and  freedom  of  religion 
was  conceded  to  all  professing  Christianity,  though  service 
in  each  parish  on  Sunday  was  obligatory.  Divine  service 
according  to  the  English  liturgy  was  allowed  to  be  held  in 
the  Dutch  church  in  the  fort  at  New  Amsterdam,  after  the 
service  of  the  Reformed  Church  was  over,  a  courtesy  re- 
membered and  repaid  by  Trinity  Church  more  than  a 
hundred  years  afterward,  when,  in  1779,  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  it  gave  the  use  of  St.  George's  Chapel  to 
the  Dutch  congregation,  whose  church  at  that  time  was 
taken  for  a  hospital  by  the  king's  troops.  In  making  this 
offer  the  vestry  expressed  themselves  as  "  impressed  with 
a  grateful  remembrance  of  the  former  kindness  of  the 
members  of  that  ancient  church  in  permitting  the  use  of 
their  church  to  the  members  of  the  Church  of  England 
when  they  had  no  proper  edifice  of  their  own." 

The  surrender  of  New  York  to  a  Dutch  squadron  in 
1673,  and  its  restoration  to  the  EngHsh  in  1674,  changed 
some  of  the  ecclesiastical  arrangements.  Sir  Edmund 
Andros  was  appointed  governor  with  enlarged  powers ; 
and  he  describes  New  York  in  1678  as  containing  twenty- 
four  towns,  and  adds,  "  religions  of  all  sorts:  one  Church 
of  England,  Quakers  and  Anabaptists,  some  Jews,  but 
Presbyterians  and  Independents  most  numerous  and  sub- 
stantial." He  was  strenuous  in  his  advocacy  of  the  English 
Church;  but  the  Assembly  passed  a  charter  guaranteeing 
freedom  of  conscience  and  religion  to  all  who  professed 
faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ.  When  the  Duke  of  York  be- 
came King  James  II.,  he  abohshed  the  popular  Assembly, 
and  New  York  became  a  royal  province. 

Colonel  Thomas  Dougan,  a  Roman  Catholic,  succeeded 
Andros,  bringing  Rev.  John  Gordon  with  him  as  chaplain 
of  the  royal  forces.  The  instructions  of  the  king,  though 
himself  a  papist,  still  guarded  the  interests  of  the  Church 


ACT  OF  1693;  GOVERNOR  FLETCHER.  165 

of  England.  "You  shall  take  especial  care,"  he  wrote, 
"  that  God  Almighty  be  devoutly  and  duly  served  through- 
out the  government;  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  as  it 
is  now  established,  read  each  Sunday  and  holy  day,  and 
the  blessed  sacrament  administered  according  to  the  rites 
of  the  Church  of  England."  When  James  was  dethroned, 
and  William  and  Mary  were  proclaimed,  in  1688,  an  in- 
surrection, or  revolution,  occurred,  headed  by  Jacob  Leslie, 
which  was  finally  overcome  in  1691,  when  Leslie  was  exe- 
cuted. This  insurrection  did  not  affect  the  church,  save  to 
accentuate  the  Protestant  element,  of  which  Leslie  was  the 
devoted  adherent. 

Colonel  Henry  Stoughton,  who  was  appointed  governor 
hy  William  and  Mary,  was  directed  to  give  religious  liberty 
to  all  but  Roman  Catholics,  who,  on  account  of  political 
considerations,  were  now  discredited.  He  was  also  in- 
structed to  have  the  Prayer-book  read  in  the  colony.  It 
was,  however,  under  Governor  Fletcher,  who  succeeded 
Stoughton,  that  the  English  Church  began  to  grow  and 
was  accorded  precedence.  It  was  the  proposition  of 
Miller,  the  English  chaplain  of  the  fort,  that  a  bishop  with 
attendant  clergymen  should  be  sent  over  from  England  ; 
but,  like  all  such  appeals,  this  was  never  acted  on.  Under 
Governor  Fletcher  an  attempt  was  made  to  secure  a  quasi- 
establishment  of  the  church,  which  succeeded.  An  act  of 
the  Assembly  was  passed  in  1693,  providing  that  in  four 
specified  counties,  New  York,  Westchester,  Queens,  and 
Richmond,  there  should  be  five  ministers  supported  by  the 
county,  and  that  all  freeholders  should  vote  in  the  election 
of  vestrymen  and  wardens.  Governor  Fletcher  insisted 
that  the  act  must  relate  to  Episcopal  ministers  only.  The 
Assembly  repudiated  this  construction  of  the  act,  and  de- 
clared by  vote  that  the  vestries  might  call  a  "  dissenting 
Protestant  minister."     From  this  time  on,  however,  it  con- 


1 66  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.       [Chap.  vi. 

tinned  to  be  maintained,  under  the  influence  of  the  gov- 
ernor, that  none  but  Episcopal  clergymen  had  any  title  to  a 
support  at  the  public  expense.  This  was  all  the  establish- 
ment of  the  church  there  was.  It  was  under  this  act  of 
1693,  and  this  interpretation  of  it,  that  Trinity  Church  was 
established  in  1697. 

The  population  of  New  York  was  now  about  eighteen 
thousand.  The  small  chapel  in  the  fort  was  the  only  place 
of  worship,  shared  by  the  Dutch,  the  English,  and,  in  a 
side  chapel,  the  Roman  Catholics.  The  sole  minister  of 
the  Establishment  was  the  garrison  chaplain.  The  necessity 
of  larger  quarters  and  of  more  dignified  accommodation 
for  the  English  congregation  was  apparent.  Governor 
Fletcher,  therefore,  in  1695,  began  to  take  steps  to  organ- 
ize and  build  a  church  on  ground  which  had  been  secured 
on  Broadway,  without  the  North  Gate  of  the  city,  the 
property  still  occupied  by  Trinity  Church.  He  was  the 
principal  promoter  and  most  generous  benefactor  of  it. 

When,  in  1696,  the  church  building  was  nearly  com- 
pleted, the  appointment  of  a  rector  became  a  first  necessity. 
The  choice  lay  in  the  city  vestry ;  for  the  charter  making 
the  church  a  corporate  body  had  not  yet  been  obtained. 
This  vestry  had  been  elected,  according  to  the  act  of  1693, 
by  all  the  freeholders  of  the  city  without  regard  to  religious 
belief.  Urged  by  the  governor  to  act,  it  had  already,  in 
January  of  the  year  previous  (1695),  proceeded  under  the 
act  of  1693  to  call  "to  be  minister  of  the  city  of  New 
York,"  Mr.  William  Vesey,  an  Independent  minister 
preaching  at  Hempstead,  on  Long  Island.  This  action 
was  confirmed  as  lawful  by  the  General  Assembly,  and 
with  apparent  reason,  as  the  wording  of  the  act  of  1693 
for  providing  "  a  good  and  sufficient  Protestant  minister  " 
for  the  city  was,  considering  the  constituency  which  granted 


CALL    OF  MR.    VESEY  TO    TRINITY  CHURCH.        1 6/ 

it,  presumably  meant  to  include  other  than  episcopally 
ordained  clergymen. 

The  vestry's  action,  however,  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Vesey, 
was  directly  in  the  face  and  teeth  of  the  governor's  inten- 
tion. He  consequently  prorogued  the  Assembly,  and  the 
vestry's  call  fell  through.  By  the  next  year  the  complexion 
of  the  city  vestry  was  greatly  changed,  its  membership  hav- 
ing become  much  more  favorable  to  the  English  Church ; 
indeed,  the  two  city  wardens  and  seven  of  the  ten  vestry- 
men of  the  city  vestry  of  1694  afterward  became  part  of 
the  church  vestry  of  the  parish.  They  proceeded,  Novem- 
ber 6,  1696,  to  call  Mr.  Vesey  for  the  second  time  to  be 
"  minister  of  the  city  of  New  York,"  but  now  on  condition 
that  he  should  procure  episcopal  ordination  in  England. 
The  Dutch  element,  having  been  propitiated  by  a  liberal 
charter  granted  by  the  governor  to  the  Dutch  church,  ac- 
quiesced. Personally  Mr.  Vesey  was  "  persona  grata  "  to 
them,  as  they  had  previously  called  him.  Ecclesiastically 
he  would  now  be  acceptable  to  the  "  managers  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Church  of  England  "  and  to  the  governor.  He  was 
an  estimable  young  man,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College  of 
the  class  of  1693.  He  is  reputed  to  have  belonged  to  an 
old  church  family  of  Braintree,  Mass.  ;  but  after  leaving 
college  he  had  officiated  among  the  Independents  at  Hemp- 
stead, L.  I.,  supported  by  the  tax  authorized  by  the  act 
of  1693.  He  was  a  popular  preacher  in  Queens  County, 
and  was  well  known  in  the  city  of  New  York.  At  the  time 
of  this  second  call  the  vestry  had  before  them  the  certificate 
of  Rev.  Samuel  Myles,  rector  of  King's  Chapel,  Boston,  and 
of  the  two  churchwardens,  testifying  to  the  excellent  re- 
ligious character  of  Mr.  Vesey,  and  to  the  fact  of  his  often 
receiving  the  sacrament  in  that  church.  On  these  grounds 
he  was  called ;  and  he,  accepting  the  call,  agreed  to  repair 


1 68  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  vi. 

to  England  for  ordination,  which  he  did  the  following 
spring,  and  was  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  London, 
August  i6,  1697. 

On  May  6,  1697,  "the  managers  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  city  of  New  York  "  petitioned 
for  a  charter,  praying  to  be  incorporated  with  the  powers 
and  privileges  usually  appertaining  to  the  churches  of  the 
Establishment.  They  cited  the  fact  that,  there  being  then 
no  building  for  the  public  worship  of  God  according  to  the 
Church  of  England,  "  they  had  built  a  church  and  covered 
the  same,"  and  they  asked  the  application  of  the  main- 
tenance voted  in  the  act  of  the  Assembly  of  1693  for  the 
minister's  support,  and  also  for  a  grant  of  land  near  the 
church.  The  council  granted  the  petition,  and  on  the  same 
day  the  governor  issued  a  charter,  in  the  name  of  the  king, 
agreeable  to  the  petition,  and  constituted  the  said  church 
and  cemetery  to  "  be  the  sole  and  only  parish  church  and 
churchyard  of  the  said  city  of  New  York."  The  rector 
named  in  the  charter  was  the  Bishop  of  London,  Dr. 
Henry  Compton ;  and  among  the  wardens  and  vestrymen 
occur  the  names,  so  familiar  still  in  the  history  of  the  city, 
of  Ludlow,  Janeway,  Read,  Morris,  Emott,  Clarke,  and 
others,  led  by  that  of  Colonel  Heathcote,  so  energetic  in 
the  spread  of  the  church  everywhere,  especially  in  Con- 
necticut, and  an  ancestor  of  the  first  Bishop  of  Western 
New  York,  William  Heathcote  De  Lancey. 

The  appointment  of  the  Bishop  of  London  as  rector  was, 
of  course,  only  provisional,  to  satisfy  the  conditions  of  the 
charter.  Mr.  William  Vesey,  whom  he  so  soon  afterward 
ordained,  became  resident  rector  in  the  same  year.  Steps 
were  immediately  taken,  when  once  the  charter  and  gifts 
conferred  by  it  were  granted,  to  complete  the  church 
edifice;  and  a  sum  sufficient  for  the  purpose  was  ordered 
to  be  charged  on  all  the  inhabitants  in  the  parish,  payable 


THE  BUILDING   OF   TRINITY  CHURCH.  169 

in  seven  years.  Subscriptions  were  also  taken  for  the  pur- 
pose ;  and  it  is  amazing  and  amusing  to  note  that  in  but 
one  case  did  they  amount  to  five  pounds,  and  that  they 
mostly  consisted  of  one  or  two  pounds.  A  special  subscrip- 
tion for  the  building  of  the  steeple  amounted  to  a  little 
over  three  hundred  and  twelve  pounds,  of  which  nearly 
six  pounds  was  contributed  by  the  Jews.  It  is  interesting, 
in  view  of  the  subsequent  wealth  of  the  parish,  to  observe 
the  various  means  used  to  collect  funds  for  the  church. 
Some  money,  amounting  to  about  three  hundred  pounds, 
which  had  been  collected  for  the  redemption  of  Christian 
slaves  taken  by  the  "  Sally  "  from  Algeria  (which  still  re- 
mained in  the  public  coffers,  as  the  slaves  had  died  or  es- 
caped), was  obtained  from  the  council  for  finishing  and 
furnishing  the  church.  His  Excellency  also  granted  the 
wardens  a  commission  for  all  "  Weifts,  Wrecks  and  Drift 
Whales,"  for  the  same  purpose.  Four  hundred  pounds 
was  also  borrowed,  and  became  a  corporation  debt.  The 
great  endowment  of  Trinity  Church  was  made  in  1705,  in 
the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  by  a  deed  patent,  signed  by 
Lord  Cornbury,  then  governor,  conveying  to  the  corpora- 
tion the  Queen's  Farm,  a  tract  of  land  extending  along  the 
river  from  the  present  site  of  St.  Paul's  Chapel  to  Chris- 
topher Street.  It  was,  of  course,  at  that  time  wholly  un- 
productive ;  but  it  has  since  been  the  source  from  which 
the  Trinity  corporation  has  chiefly  derived  the  revenues  for 
its  own  extensive  and  constantly  extending  parish  activities, 
and  for  the  munificent  gifts  to  such  corporations  as  Colum- 
bia (then  King's)  College,  the  Society  for  the  Promotion 
of  Religion  and  Learning,  and  Trinity  School,  and  to  such 
churches  as  St.  Mark's,  St.  George's,  and  Grace  in  the  city, 
and  to  many  other  parishes  within  and  without  the  city 
which  have  been  founded  or  generously  fostered  by  the 
mother-church  of  the  diocese. 


rr 


170  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  vi. 

Mr.  Vesey  was  inducted  into  his  position  on  Christmas 
day,  1697.  Trinity  Church  being  then  unfinished,  the 
ceremony  of  induction  took  place  in  the  Dutch  church 
in  Garden  Street.  Governor  Fletcher  acted  as  inducting 
officer,  for  it  was  chiefly  a  civil  ceremony,  affirming  the  legal 
status  of  the  incumbent.  Two  Dutch  ministers.  Dominie 
Selyns  of  New  York  and  Dominie  Nucella  of  Kingston, 
were  among  the  subscribing  witnesses.  It  is  thought  that 
the  service  was  performed  in  Latin,  a  tongue  which  both 
Dutch  and  English  could  understand  better  than  they 
could  the  language  of  each  other. 

The  English  church  was  not  finished  for  three  months, 
and  during  this  period  Dominie  Selyns  and  Mr.  Vesey 
officiated  alternately  in  the  Dutch  church,  in  their  respec- 
tive languages.  On  March  13,  16)8,  Mr.  Vesey  opened 
Trinity  Church,  bringing  his  bride  with  him  as  one  of  the 
congregation.  At  this  service  the  rector  read  the  certificate 
of  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  promised  conformity  to  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer, 

The  founding  and  establishment  of  Trinity  Church  in 
New  York  proved  a  notable  event  in  the  history  of  the 
church  in  America.  The  situation  of  the  city  was  such 
that  it  could  not  fail  to  become  the  center  of  trade  and 
commerce  into  which  it  has  since  expanded.  The  presence 
and  patronage  of  the  royal  governor  gave  at  the  start 
prestige  to  the  church  of  which  he  was  a  member.  The 
emigration  of  the  Dutch  for  the  most  part  ceased  when  the 
English  took  possession,  but  the  English  came  in  increasing 
numbers.  The  Jesuits  found  here  a  refuge  for  a  while ; 
and  Palatine  settlers  on  the  Hudson,  with  the  Dutch  de- 
creasing and  the  English  increasing,  formed  the  bulk  of  the 
population. 

The  problem  which  the  church  here  had  to  solve  was 
wholly   difi"erent  from  that   of   the  church   either  in  the 


CHURCH  LIFE  IN  NEW  YORK.  171 

Southern  States  or  in  New  England.  In  the  South  it  was 
more  completely  established;  but  it  was  there  the  church 
of  a  thoroughly  agricultural  community,  widely  scattered, 
containing  a  vast  slave  population,  where  the  parishes  were 
immense  in  territory,  but  whose  inhabitants  were  sepa- 
rated by  wretched  roads  and  an  absence  of  public  con- 
veyances. A  landed  aristocracy  existed,  the  members 
of  which  were  greatly  isolated ;  and  there  were  no  great 
centers  where  they  could  come  frequently  together  and 
form  a  communal  life.  There  could  be  no  concentration 
of  church  effort,  and  discipline  was  relaxed  by  distance  and 
the  quasi-independence  of  the  rectors.  In  New  England 
the  church  was  not  only  in  the  minority,  but  was  discredited 
and  discountenanced.  There  it  was  in  fact  a  dissenting 
body.  It  had  to  fight  for  existence.  The  institutions  of 
learning  were  in  the  hands  of  its  adversaries.  The  tone 
and  temper  of  society  were  at  variance  with  the  doctrinal 
and  ecclesiastical  convictions  of  churchmen.  It  lived  by 
sufferance,  and  was  an  object  of  suspicion  and  dread.  In 
New  York  it  stood  at  the  head  of  a  community  not  inimical 
beyond  the  limits  of  denominational  rivalry,  when  not 
identified  with  it ;  a  community  where  the  amenities  of 
social  life  flourished,  and  where  it  received  the  prestige  of 
royal  favor  and  princely  munificence. 

The  Dutch  church  in  Garden  Street,  and  the  Huguenot 
church  in  Pine  Street,  together  with  Trinity  Church, 
furnished  services  in  the  three  languages,  English,  French, 
and  Dutch.  There  was  a  population  of  industrious  and 
prosperous  tradesmen  of  these  various  nationalities.  There 
was  also  an  aristocracy  of  vast  landed  proprietors,  the 
patroons,  whose  immense  estates  lay  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Hudson,  but  who  built  fine  houses  in  the  city,  in 
which  they  lived  in  winter.  Here  they  resided  in  princely 
fashion,  with  great  retinues  of  servants,  both  white  and 


172  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.        [Chap.  vi. 

black.  Their  entertainments  were  frequent  and  splendid. 
If  not  of  the  church,  they  were  not  hostile  to  it;  and  by- 
reason  of  the  blind  insistence  of  the  Dutch  in  holding  their 
services  in  a  foreign  language,  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  patroons  and  the  higher  classes  generally  found  it  more 
agreeable  to  attend  the  English  service,  and  drifted  slowly 
and  surely  into  that  communion.  Kindly  feelings  for  the 
most  part  existed  between  the  two  churches,  but  the  Eng- 
lish Church  was  the  absorbent.  It  had  the  advantages 
without  the  drawbacks  of  the  South.  It  shared  the  enter- 
prise and  earnestness  of  New  England,  unburdened  by 
opposition  and  distrust. 

Immediately  on  the  completion  of  Trinity  Church  there 
began  a  rapid  development  of  church  life.  The  first  build- 
ing was  a  small  square  edifice,  which  was  enlarged  in  1787, 
when  it  attained  the  size  of  a  hundred  and  forty-eight  feet 
in  length  and  seventy-two  feet  in  breadth,  with  a  steeple 
a  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet  in  height.  The  interior  is 
described  as  being  more  richly  ornamented  than  any  other 
place  of  public  worship.  There  was  an  altar-piece  in  the 
chancel.  Gilt  busts  of  winged  angels  crowned  the  tops  of 
the  pillars  which  upheld  the  gallery,  and  two  glass  chande- 
liers hung  from  the  ceiling.  The  side  walls  were  decorated 
with  the  arms  of  some  of  the  principal  benefactors  of  the 
church.  A  gallery  on  the  south  side  was  erected  for  the 
use  of  the  governor  and  council.  A  fine  organ  stood  in  the 
gallery  at  the  west  end. 

Mr.  Vesey  proved  a  valuable  and  churchly  rector.  He 
possessed  the  instincts  of  a  churchman,  and  called  forth 
the  commendations  of  Lord  Cornbury,  the  governor,  and 
Colonel  Heathcote,  both  noted  for  their  ardent  church- 
manship.  He  was  maintained  by  a  tax  levied  on  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  city,  amounting  to  a  hundred  and  sixty 
pounds  ;  one  hundred  in  perpetuity  to  the  parish,  and  sixty, 


THE  ENGLISH  AND  DUTCH  CHURCHES.  173 

added  by  an  act  of  the  Assembly,  while  Mr.  Vesey  should 
remain  incumbent.  Twenty-six  pounds  was  added  by  the 
governor's  council  for  house-rent.  Fees,  also,  for  burials 
and  marriages  were  established  by  the  vestry  as  his 
perquisite. 

About  this  time  the  parish  was  the  recipient  of  many 
valuable  gifts  from  various  distinguished  persons.  The 
Bishop  of  London  presented  a  bell  and  sixty  pounds,  and 
also  "a  parcell  of  books  of  Divinity."  The  Bishop  of 
Bristol  gave  paving-stones;  Lord  Cornbury,  a  black-cloth 
pall,  also  two  Prayer-books,  and  the  beginnings  of  a  library. 
The  benefactions  and  patronage  of  such  distinguished  per- 
sons could  not  fail  to  influence  the  temporal  condition  of 
the  parish.  This  did  not,  however,  release  the  rector  from 
the  many  trials  and  vexations  incident  to  his  situation,  and 
which  bore  heavily  on  a  man  of  Mr.  Vesey's  temperament. 
The  growth  of  the  church  under  his  faithful  and  pains- 
taking oversight  was  steady,  both  from  the  incoming  of 
English  residents  and  the  accession  to  it  of  numbers  of  the 
Dutch  and  Huguenot  families.  The  civic  and  social  jeal- 
ousies of  such  propagandism  at  one  time  seemed  to  array 
society  in  two  factions:  churchmen  headed  by  the  De 
Lanceys,  and  Presbyterians  led  by  the  Livingstons.  In  a 
formative  and  rapidly  growing  society  such  as  New  York 
then  exhibited,  religious  differences  entered  largely  into 
political  and  social  questions.  Such  local  and  temporary 
disagreements,  however,  grew  less  and  less  evident  as  the 
various  parties  grew  more  and  more  self-reliant ;  so  that 
when,  in  1780,  the  Dutch  church  returned  thanks  to  the 
vestry  of  Trinity  for  the  use  of  St.  George's  Chapel  during 
the  occupation  of  their  own  house  of  worship  as  a  hospital, 
they  spoke  of  their  congregation  as  those  "  who  have 
always  considered  the  interests  of  the  two  churches  as  in- 
separable, and  hope  that  this  instance  of  brotherly  love  will 


174  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.       [Chap.  vi. 

evince  to  posterity  the  cordial  and  happy  union  subsisting 
between  us." 

Mr.  Vesey  was  mindful  of  the  interests  of  the  church  in 
the  counties  as  well  as  in  the  city.  At  his  suggestion,  as 
early  as  1 702,  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel 
decided  that  six  missionaries  should  be  sent  to  New  York. 
Rev.  Patrick  Gordon  was  appointed  to  Jamaica,  L.  I.,  but 
died  soon  after  his  arrival.  The  Rev.  J.  Bastow,  who  was 
sent  the  same  year  to  Westchester,  N.  Y.,  found  only  ten 
churchmen  there,  but  two  years  afterward  made  a  report 
of  many  accessions,  saying,  "  Those  who  were  enemies  at 
my  first  coming  are  now  zealous  professors  of  the  ordinances 
of  our  church."  Many  Presbyterians  at  East  Chester  for- 
sook their  minister  and  conformed  to  the  church ;  and  the 
Dutch  thronged  to  hear  the  rector  preach  at  Yonkers,  where 
he  sometimes  officiated  in  a  private  house  or  barn.  The 
Rev.  J.  Thomas,  who  came  to  Hempstead  and  Oyster  Bay, 
on  Long  Island,  in  1 704,  found  a  population  very  ignorant 
of  church  ordinances  and  church  ways;  but  in  1709  he 
reports  thirty- five  communicants  from  among  them.  The 
Rev.  E.  Mackenzie  was  sent  to  Staten  Island  in  1 704,  and 
was  enabled  by  the  society  to  establish  schools  and  dis- 
tribute books.  The  Dutch  and  French  Huguenots  were 
already  there,  but  the  English  consisted  chiefly  of  Quakers 
and  Baptists.  The  French  especially  received  the  mission- 
ary kindly,  giving  him  the  use  of  their  church  until  his  own 
was  built ;  and  the  Dutch,  after  receiving  the  Prayer-book 
in  their  own  language,  allowed  their  children  to  be  instructed 
in  the  church  catechism,  as  also  did  the  French  and  all  but 
a  few  of  the  English  dissenters.  Mr.  Mackenzie  was  highly 
esteemed,  and  his  labors  wrought  a  decided  reformation  in 
the  manners  and  morals  of  the  people.  The  Rev.  George 
Muirson,  whom  the  society  sent  to  Rye  in  1705,  found  few 
church-members  there,  but  soon  gathered  a  large  congre- 


THE   CHURCH  IN  ALBANY.  175 

gation  from  persons  of  all  persuasions.  He  was  a  beacon- 
light,  also,  to  the  neighboring  churchmen  of  Connecticut, 
just  over  the  border  of  the  Province,  and,  accompanied  by 
Colonel  Caleb  Heathcote,  performed  the  first  Episcopal 
service  in  Stratford,  where  he  also  baptized  a  number  of 
persons  and  founded  a  mission.  At  New  Rochelle,  in  1 709, 
the  Venerable  Society,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  French 
Protestant  church  there,  adopted  their  minister.  Rev.  D. 
Burdet,  instructing  him  in  the  liturgy ;  and  the  people 
generally  conformed,  and  provided  a  new  church,  a  house, 
and  a  glebe.  At  Albany,  which  was  thus  early  an  im-f 
portant  center  as  a  chief  trading- station  with  the  Indians, 
and  as  the  garrison  post  where  two  or  three  hundred 
soldiers  were  stationed  to  guard  against  the  ravages  of  the 
French  and  Indians,  the  Venerable  Society,  in  1709,  ap- 
pointed the  English  chaplain  at  the  fort.  Rev.  T.  Barclay, 
to  be  its  missionary.  There  were  nearly  four  thousand 
inhabitants  then  in  the  place,  mainly  Dutch.  The  Dutch 
minister  at  this  time  had  returned  to  Europe,  and  Mr. 
Barclay  had  the  use  of  the  Lutheran  church  for  seven 
years,  and  a  large  number  of  the  Dutch  conformed.  He 
was  very  diligent,  also,  in  instructing  the  negro  slaves.  A 
new  church  was  built  for  him,  and  finished  in  1716.  This 
was  the  first  building  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Albany,  where 
Mr.  Barclay  remained  as  rector  until  1728.  When  ap- 
pointed missionary,  he  was  directed  by  the  society  to  in- 
struct the  neighboring  Indians.  This  he  did  with  assiduity, 
and  in  October,  1712,  opened  a  chapel  which  had  been 
built  among  the  Mohawks,  who  had  received  him  favor- 
ably. He  officiated  once  a  month  at  Schenectady,  and 
often  for  the  Indians  lying  twenty-four  miles  west  of  it. 
Such  progress  was  made  by  his  unwearied  labors  among 
them  that  in  17 12  the  S.  P.  G.  sent  Rev.  William  Andrews  \ 
as  a  special  missionary  to  the  Indians,  among  whom  he  made 


176  PROTESTANT  EnSCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  vi. 

for  a  time  a  good  impression.  The  Indians  built  a  school- 
house.  Portions  of  the  Prayer-book  and  Bible  were  pro- 
vided in  the  Mohawk  language,  as  well  as  school-books, 
and  instruction  was  diligently  given  in  the  same.  Fifty 
Indians  were  baptized  within  six  months,  of  whom  eighteen 
became  communicants.  A  little  later  the  introduction  of 
rum  by  the  traders  wrought  great  demoralization,  and  the 
mission  had  to  be  suspended  in  17 19.  Later  on,  in  1734, 
Mr.  Henry  Barclay,  son  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Barclay,  was 
appointed  catechist  to  the  Mohawks  at  Fort  Hunter  im- 
mediately after  his  graduation  at  Yale  College.  Mr.  Bar- 
clay proved  so  efficient  and  devoted  in  this  sphere  that 
when  Mr.  Miln  resigned  his  rectorship  of  St.  Peter's,  Al- 
bany, in  1737,  he  was  appointed  his  successor  as  rector  of 
the  parish.  Here  he  continued  his  labors  among  the  Indians 
to  such  effect  that  in  i  741  he  reported  to  the  S.  P.  G.  that  his 
congregation  in  Albany  consisted  of  a  hundred  and  eighty 
English,  besides  two  companies  of  soldiers  ;  and  in  Mohawk 
County  of  five  hundred  Indians  settled  in  two  towns  thirty 
miles  from  Albany.  He  had  sixty  Enghsh  and  fifty-eight 
Indian  communicants.  In  i  743  he  stated  that  two  or  three 
only  of  the  whole  tribe  remained  unbaptized,  and  that  he 
had  appointed  two  Mohawk  schoolmasters  to  teach  the 
young  Mohawks,  who  were  very  diligent  and  successful. 
He  labored  with  great  zeal  and  success  until  the  latter  part 
of  1 745,  when  his  work  was  rudely  checked  by  the  intrigues 
of  the  French  and  a  hostile  invasion  of  Indians.  The  pros- 
pect of  doing  good  among  the  natives  during  the  contin- 
uance of  hostilities  seemed  now  almost  hopeless ;  and  Mr. 
Barclay,  after  much  hesitation,  concluded  to  accept  the  call 
of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  to  be  its  second  rector,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Vesey  having  died  the  previous  year.  He  was 
inducted  into  that  office  December  22,  1746,  and,  amid  all 
the  labors  it  involved,  never  lost  his  interest  in  the  Indians, 


MR.    ELI  AS  NEAU'S    WORK  FOR  AEGROES.  177 

among  whom  he  had  labored  Hke  an  apostle.  He  never 
afterward  relaxed  his  efforts  in  their  behalf.  In  his  last 
years,  about  i  762,  he  was  engaged  in  superintending  a  new 
edition  of  the  Indian  Prayer-book.  This  Indian  mission 
was  continued  by  a  succession  of  able  missionaries,  and  as 
a  consequence  the  Mohawks  were  the  only  Indian  nation 
who  continued  steadfast  to  the  English  in  all  their  wars. 

Nothing  is  more  praiseworthy,  either  in  the  history  of 
the  Venerable  Society  or  in  the  annals  of  Trinity  Church, 
than  the  care  and  attention  given  to  the  Indian  natives  and 
the  negro  slaves  of  New  York.  During  its  connectioiV 
with  the  province  the  Venerable  Society  employed  sixteerj 
clergymen  and  thirteen  lay  readers  for  these  helpless  and 
ignorant  classes.  Trinity  Church,  from  the  very  start, 
maintained,  and  persuaded  the  Venerable  Society  to 
maintain,  catechists  and  schoolmasters  for  the  Indians  and 
negroes  of  the  city.  Of  the  slaves  there  were  then  about 
fifteen  hundred,  and  great  pains  was  taken  to  get  hold  of 
them  by  Mr.  Elias  Neau.  He  was  a  Huguenot  who  had  been 
imprisoned  abroad  for  his  religion,  and  who,  coming  to  New 
York  as  a  trader,  conformed  to  the  English  Church  on  ac- 
count of  his  attachment  to  the  liturgy,  part  of  which  he 
had  learned  by  heart  in  his  dungeon.  For  a  long  series  of 
years  he  labored  with  great  assiduity  among  the  negroes, 
bringing  them  to  church  on  Sundays  to  be  catechised  by 
the  rector,  and  instructing  them  on  week-day  evenings,  the 
only  time  when  they  could  be  reached  by  his  labors.  All 
this  was  done  in  the  face  of  prejudice  and  scorn,  which 
seem  to  have  been  attached  to  the  negro  race  from  the  in- 
troduction of  slaves  into  the  country.  He  was  a  catechist 
of  the  Venerable  Society,  whose  attention  he  had  called  to 
this  field  of  labor,  and  a  fine  type,  in  that  early  day,  of  the 
devout  layman.  After  his  death  the  Venerable  Society 
appointed  others  to  carry  on  his  work,  and  the  mission 


178  rKOTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chav.  vi. 

was  continued  under  an  ordained  missionary  during  the 
remainder  of  the  society's  connection  with  the  colony. 

In  1745,  shortly  before  his  death,  Mr.  Vesey,  who  in 
1 712  had  been  appointed  commissary  of  the  Bishop  of 
London,  reported  to  the  Venerable  Society  that  within  his 
jurisdiction  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey  there  were 
twenty-two  churches,  most  of  them  commonly  filled  with 
hearers,  although  he  adds:  "When,  in  1697,  I  became 
rector  of  Trinity,  besides  the  church  and  chapel  in  the  fort, 
one  church  in  Philadelphia,  and  one  in  Boston,  I  don't 
remember  to  have  heard  of  one  building  erected  for  the 
public  worship  of  God  according  to  the  liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England  on  this  northern  continent  of  America, 
from  Maryland  to  the  easternmost  bounds  of  Nova  Scotia." 
Much  of  this  result  was  due  to  the  Venerable  Society,  who, 
during  its  connection  with  the  colonies,  assisted  in  main- 
taining in  New  York  fifty-eight  missionaries  and  twenty- 
three  central  stations.^ 

The  wording  of  the  act  of  1693,  especially  the  phrase 
"  a  good  and  sufficient  Protestant  minister,"  by  its 
ambiguity,  or  the  varied  interpretation  given  to  it,  gave 
rise  to  unpleasant  wrangling  as  to  who  should  possess  and 
use  the  church  buildings  and  parsonages  erected  in  the 
counties  by  the  tax  authorized  in  that  act.  In  Jamaica,  on 
Long  Island,  a  Presbyterian  minister  was  ejected  from  his 
parsonage  by  Lord  Cornbury,  and  the  building  handed 
over  to  the  Episcopalians.  This  governor,  though  ardent 
in  his  advocacy  of  the  church  as  an  establishment,  was  not 
an  ornament  to  her  communion.  By  his  rapacity  and  prof- 
ligacy he  brought  on  himself  the  hatred  of  all  parties.  He 
carried  his  ecclesiastical  prejudices  to  an  extreme,  and  pros- 
ecuted the  Rev.  Mr.  Mackenzie,  whose  parsonage  he  had 
seized,  for  using  forms  of  worship  not  set  forth  in  the 

1  "  Digest  of  S.  P.  G.  Records,"  p.  78. 


THE  BUILDING    OF  ST.   GEORGE'S  CHAPEL.         179 

English  Prayer-book,  asserting  that  the  English  Acts  of 
Uniformity  were  in  force  in  the  province.  The  minister 
was  acquitted,  and  the  principle  of  religious  liberty  was 
sanctioned,  though  it  is  doubtful  if  he  ever  regained  his 
parsonage. 

Thus,  in  the  midst  of  much  admirable  earnestness  on 
the  part  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  and  occasional  unjust 
partisanship  on  the  part  of  officials,  the  church  grew.  The 
tares  and  the  wheat  mingled  in  the  administration  of  the 
province,  but  as  a  rule  dignity  and  justice  prevailed.  With 
such  typical  and  illustrious  laymen  as  Lieutenant-Governor 
De  Lancey  and  Sir  William  Johnson  (famous  for  his  labors 
in  behalf  of  the  Mohawks),  with  faithful  and  devoted  mis- 
sionaries and  not  less  faithful  and  devoted  lay  catechists 
and  school-teachers  of  the  poor  and  despised  negroes,  and 
with  such  able  and  honorable  men  as  the  successive  rectors 
of  Trinity  parish,  the  church  deserved  the  success  which  it 
achieved. 

Trinity  Church  had  been  enlarged  during  the  rectorship 
of  Mr.  Vesey,  in  1737.  During  the  rectorship  of  Dr. 
Barclay  (who  had  now  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity  from  Oxford  University)  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
parish  made  it  necessary  to  erect  a  chapel  of  ease  to  ac- 
commodate the  augmenting  congregation.  St.  George's 
Chapel,  subsidiary  to  the  parish  church,  was  built  in  Beek- 
man  Street,  in  the  region  known  as  the  "Swamp,"  the  pres- 
ent center  of  the  leather-trade,  and  was  opened  for  service 
July  I,  1752.  It  was  a  large  church,  with  a  lofty  spire, 
and  the  opening  service  was  a  sort  of  civic  festival.  There 
was  a  procession  from  the  City  Hall  to  the  chapel,  in  which 
the  rector,  assistant  rector,  churchwardens,  and  vestry 
were  accompanied  by  the  mayor,  recorder,  aldermen,  and 
Common  Council  of  the  city,  together  with  the  clergy 
of  the  town  and  neighborhood,  the   Charity  School  and 


l8o  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  vi. 

schoolmaster  of  the  parish,  and  many  prominent  citizens. 
The  Charity  School  thus  represented  had  been  founded  in 
1 709,  and  was  jointly  supported  by  the  Venerable  Society 
and  Trinity  corporation.  It  was  the  forerunner,  or  the 
beginning  rather,  of  the  present  Trinity  School,  afterward 
amply  endowed  by  the  parish  and  by  the  legacies  of 
various  benevolent  individuals,  among  whom,  for  their 
early  and  large  benefactions,  may  be  especially  mentioned 
Mr.  Alexander  Troup  and  Hon.  John  Chambers  and  wife. 
A  donation  was  also  made  to  it  by  the  State.  It  was 
founded  to  give  gratuitous  education  to  poor  children,  and 
to  instruct  them  in  religion  according  to  the  doctrines  of 
the  church.  In  1826  it  was  reorganized  under  the  name 
of  the  "  New  York  Protestant  Episcopal  Public  School," 
and  classical  instruction  was  added  to  its  curriculum.  In 
1845  it  received  its  present  name  of  Trinity  School. 

In  the  same  year  with  the  opening  of  St.  George's 
Chapel  the  vestry  took  measures  looking  to  the  founding 
and  building  of  a  college  for  higher  education.  Two  years 
later,  in  1754,  they  voted  to  give  from  the  King's  Farm 
the  land  on  which  Columbia  College  stood  for  so  many 
years,  viz.,  "  from  Church  Street  all  the  lands  between 
Barclay  Street  and  Murray  Street  to  the  water  side;  upon 
this  coridition  that  the  President  of  the  said  Colledge  for- 
ever, for  the  time  being,  be  a  member  of  and  in  Com- 
munion with  the  Church  of  England,  and  that  the  morning 
and  evening  service  in  said  Colledge  be  the  Liturgy  of  the 
said  Church,  or  such  a  collection  of  prayers  out  of  said 
Liturgy  as  shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the  President,  or 
Trustees  or  Governours  of  the  said  Colledge."  In  regard 
to  this  ecclesiastical  condition  of  the  gift  of  land,  the  vestry, 
in  a  letter  asking  for  aid,  wrote  to  the  Venerable  Society 
as  follows :  "  We  never  insisted  on  any  condition,  till  we 
found  some  persons  labouring  to  exclude  all  systems  of  re- 


FOUNDING    OF  KING'S  {COLUMBIA)   COLLEGE.       l8l 

ligion  out  of  the  Constitution  of  the  College.  When  we 
discovered  this  design  we  tliought  ourselves  indispensably 
obliged  to  interpose,  and  have  had  the  countenance  of 
many  good  men  of  all  denominations,  and  in  particular  the 
ministers  of  the  Foreign  Protestant  Churches  in  this  city, 
who  are  appointed  Governors  of  the  College,  and  who, 
without  the  least  hesitation,  qualified  agreeable  to  the 
Church  and  continue  hearty  friends  of  it."  The  society 
responded  with  a  donation  of  five  hundred  pounds.  The 
Assembly  voted  funds  for  the  building  of  the  college. 
Provision  was  made  by  a  succession  of  lotteries  for  its 
support;  and  Dr.  Johnson,  the  veteran  missionary  of  Con- 
necticut, was  elected  first  president,  and  began  the  col- 
legiate course  of  instruction  alone,  July  7,  1754,  with  a 
class  of  twelve  students.  The  vestry  immediately  elected 
President  Johnson  an  assistant  minister  of  Trinity  Church, 
with  a  salary  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  and  with 
nominal  duties,  to  aid  him  in  his  support.  Although  the 
college  soon  after  became  the  recipient  of  gifts  and  legacies, 
its  revenues  are  in  large  part  derived  from  the  property 
conveyed  to  it  in  that  early  day  by  Trinity  parish. 

It  was  about  this  time,  in  1756-57,  shortly  after  the 
opening  of  King's  College  under  the  presidency  of  Dr. 
Johnson,  that  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  Jr.,  afterward  the  first 
Bishop  of  Connecticut  as  well  as  the  first  in  America,  was 
appointed  to  the  parish  of  Jamaica,  L.  I.  It  was  a  position 
of  difficulty,  on  account  of  the  nature  of  the  appointment. 
This  was  the  parish  where  Lord  Cornbury  had  seized 
the  parsonage  of  the  Presbyterian  divine  whom  he  had 
prosecuted  for  non-conformity,  but  who  had  been  ac- 
quitted. The  county  vestry,  in  which  dissenters  were 
in  the  majority,  from  a  long-cherished  feeling  of  retalia- 
tion, on  the  decease  of  the  incumbent,  chose  a  dissenter 
for   minister   of    the  town,    as    they   maintained   the    act 


1 82  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  vi. 

of  1693  gave  them  a  right  to  do.  The  governor,  Sir 
Charles  Hurdy,  refused  to  induct  him,  and  after  six  months 
appointed  young  Seabury  to  the  cure.  The  father,  Rev. 
Samuel  Seabury,  was  living  not  far  off,  in  Hempstead,  and 
there  his  son  had  spent  his  boyhood  from  the  time  when 
he  was  thirteen  years  of  age.  Knowing  the  ground,  and 
having  his  experienced  father  near  by  for  consultation,  he 
was  deemed  the  most  suitable  person  for  the  post.  He 
had  had  only  a  brief  experience  of  little  over  two  years  in 
New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  his  first  parish,  but  he  proved  an  in- 
defatigable and  at  last  a  successful  rector.  He  had  to  en- 
counter not  only  the  opposition  of  the  vestry  and  their 
numerous  adherents,  turbulent  with  the  excitement  of 
disappointment  and  repulse,  but  also  the  great  laxity 
prevalent  in  morals  and  manners,  and  the  presence  of  re- 
ligious indififerentism  and  even  open  infidelity,  which  he 
traced  to  the  Quakers,  who  were  very  numerous  in  the 
place.  His  encounters  with  them  and  their  unliturgical 
and  non- sacramental  system,  as  well  as  afterward  with  the 
wilder  enthusiasm  of  Whitefield  and  his  followers,  inten- 
sified his  churchmanship  and  narrowed  his  sympathies 
toward  anything  outside  the  church.  This  parish  left  its 
mark  upon  him  as  truly  as  he  left  his  impress  on  it.  He 
served  it  with  great  faithfulness,  and  it  helped  to  make  him 
what  he  was. 

The  noble  Dr.  Barclay,  the  second  rector  of  Trinity 
Church,  died  in  1764.  In  the  last,  year  of  his  life  there 
were  a  hundred  and  thirty-seven  marriages  celebrated  in 
the  parish,  and  four  hundred  and  thirty-one  adults  and 
children  were  baptized.  In  view  of  such  evidence  of 
strength  and  growth,  the  necessity  of  a  new  chapel  within 
the  parish  was  felt,  and  the  present  St.  Paul's  Chapel  was 
begun  in  the  spring  before  Dr.  Barclay's  death,  which  oc- 
curred in  August.     Dr.  Auchmuthy,  an  assistant  minister 


ST.  PAUL'S   CHAPEL.  I  S3 

of  the  parish,  was  elected  successor  of  Dr.  Barclay  as 
rector ;  and  under  his  auspices  St.  Paul's  Chapel  was  built, 
and  opened  for  service  the  30th  of  October,  1 766.  It 
stands  to-day  externally  almost  the  same  as  it  was  on  its 
completion,  the  only  relic,  of  old  colonial  New  York  now 
in  use.  When  opened  for  service,  Sir  Henry  Moore,  repre- 
senting the  home  government,  was  present.  The  building 
has  since  been  associated  with  our  most  distinguished 
patriots :  with  Washington,  who,  after  the  service  of  his 
inauguration  as  first  President  of  the  Republic  at  the  City 
Hall  in  Wall  Street,  attended  by  the  whole  company, 
walked  to  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  and  was  there  received  by 
Bishop  Provoost,  who,  with  suitable  religious  services,  in- 
voked the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  first  ruler  of  the  nation ; 
with  General  Richard  Montgomery,  who  fell  before  Quebec 
December,  1775,  and  whose  body  was  buried  here  in  18 18, 
forty-three  years  after  his  death,  Bishop  Hobart  reading  the 
service ;  with  General  Lafayette,  who  here  attended,  in 
1824,  a  sacred  concert  given  in  his  honor.  It  is  much  to  be 
regretted  that  the  reverent  care  with  which  its  fabric  and 
traditions  are  now  guarded  by  the  present  rector  had  not 
been  exercised  by  his  predecessors,  who  allowed  the  interior 
to  be  greatly  altered.  It  is,  however,  still  a  fine  specimen 
of  the  early  colonial  style  of  architecture. 

Dr.  Auchmuthy  had  won  his  preferment  to  the  rector- 
ship by  most  faithful  service  as  an  assistant.  He  had  been 
especially  assiduous  in  his  care  and  instruction  of  the  ne- 
groes, and  he  commanded  the  respect  of  all  the  congre- 
gation, white  and  black.  He  continued  to  serve  the  parish 
faithfully  until  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  From  1 765  he 
had  as  an  assistant  Rev.  Charles  Inglis,  who  afterward 
succeeded  him  as  rector  and  became  first  Bishop  of  Nova 
Scotia.  In  1 766  Rev.  Samuel  Provoost  was  also  made  as- 
sistant minister;  he  afterward  became  rector  of  the  parish 


184  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.       [Chap.  VI. 

and  first  Bishop  of  New  York.  In  1774  Rev.  Benjamin 
Moore,  who  succeeded  Dr.  Provoost  later  on,  both  as  rector 
of  Trinity  Church  and  Bishop  of  New  York,  was  made  an 
assistant  minister,  Dr.  Provoost  having  retired ;  as  well  as 
Rev.  John  Bowden,  who,  on  the  death  of  Bishop  Seabury, 
in  1 796,  was  chosen  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  which  election 
he  declined  by  reason  of  ill  health.  These  clergy  minis- 
tered in  the  three  church  edifices  of  the  parish.  Trinity, 
St.  George's,,  and  St.  Paul's. 

The  mutterings  of  the  coming  Revolution  began  to  be 
heard  during  Dr.  Auchmuthy's  administration,  and  the 
storm  broke  before  his  death.  His  death,  indeed,  is  to  be 
attributed  to  the  troubles  which  the  political  turmoil 
brought  upon  him.  Like  his  chief  assistant,  Mr.  Inglis — 
in  fact,  like  most  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  the  city  and 
neighborhood — he  was  an  ardent  loyalist.  Dr.  Provoost 
was  the  one  conspicuous  exception,  and  he,  in  1770,  retired 
from  the  parish  and  city  on  account  of  his  patriotic  convic- 
tions, which  put  him  out  of  sympathy  with  his  coadjutors. 
The  rector  and  his  other  assistants  kept  on  their  way,  sub- 
ject to  much  obloquy  by  the  patriots,  but  sustained  by  the 
countenance  and  sympathy  of  the  loyalists,  who,  both  at 
the  beginning  and  during  the  continuance  of  the  war,  con- 
stituted a  large  proportion  of  the  citizens.  Theirs  was  the 
hardship  of  living  in  the  midst  of  a  civil  war.  It  was  a 
state  of  things  wholly  different  from  that  which  existed 
during  the  war  with  the  Confederacy.  In  that  conflict  the 
great  body  of  sympathizers  on  either  side  were  massed  to- 
gether in  special  localities.  It  was  virtually  a  war  between 
North  and  South.  But  in  the  Revolution  a  man's  foes  were 
those  of  his  own  household.  No  city  or  county  but  diver- 
sities of  opinion  prevailed  there.  The  outrages  said  to  have 
been  perpetrated  on  either  hand  were  not  unnatural  in  that 
heated  time.    They  were  the  stern  accompaniment  of  war, 


NE  W  YORK  CLERG  V  D  URING  THE  RE  VOL  UTION.      1 8  5 

which  cannot  be  confined  to  the  slaughter  of  the  battle- 
field, but  which  involves  personal  opprobrium,  private 
spoliation,  individual  indignity  and  loss.  The  future  Bishop 
Seabury,  who  by  this  time  had  gone  to  Westchester,  was 
suspected  of  unpatriotic  acts,  not  without  reason,  and  was 
seized  and  carried  to  New  Haven  and  imprisoned.  It  is 
not  strange  that  he  should  denounce  such  treatment  as  an 
outrage,  but  it  is  strange  that  such  outrages  should  have 
been  thought  strange.  The  passions  engendered  of  civil 
conflict  are  not  careful  of  civic  etiquette  or  of  just  dealing, 
either.  The  complaints  of  Inglis  and  other  strenuous 
loyalist  clergymen  are  natural,  but  not  more  natural  than 
the  conduct  of  which  they  complained.  All  honest  men 
must  honor  the  strict  adherence  to  conscience  and  convic- 
tion of  the  clergy  who  advocated  the  royal  cause.  They 
thought  the  cause  of  independence  was  the  cause  of  un- 
righteous rebellion.  They  firmly  believed  it  could  not 
succeed  and  did  not  deserve  to.  They  acted  accordmgly 
and  suffered  accordingly.  It  was  not  to  be  expected,  how- 
ever, that  patriots  of  convictions  as  undoubted,  who  took 
their  lives  in  their  hands  to  secure  the  liberties  of  themselves 
and  their  posterity,  should  coolly  brook  the  machinations 
of  men  against  the  cause  wherein  their  homes  and  their 
fortunes  were  imperiled.  These  were  constrained  to  watch 
and  guard  against  those  enemies  whose  character  carried 
weight,  and  whose  means  of  influence  were  not  inconsider- 
able. We  always  honor  the  sufferings  of  good  men  in  a 
mistaken  cause.  It  is  impossible  not  to  honor  the  stead- 
fastness and  unflinching  pluck  with  which  the  colonial 
clergy  of  the  Northern  colonies  stood  for  what  they  deemed 
the  rights  of  their  king  and  the  obligation  of  their  oath. 
But  could  they  have  seen  more  widely  and  thought  more 
justly ;  could  their  sympathies  have  been  with  the  people 
instead  of  with  Parliament ;   could  their  inspiration  have 


1 86  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chav.  vl. 

been  drawn  from  the  spirit  of  liberty  instead  of  from  the 
letter  of  allegiance,  they  would  have  left  a  more  helpful 
heritage  to  the  church  of  the  coming  nation.  As  it  was, 
their  conservatism  proved  an  obstacle,  almost  insurmount- 
able for  years,  to  the  advance  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
America.  It  was  adduced  as  evidence  that  this  eccle- 
siastical body  was  out  of  sympathy  with  the  republican 
institutions  amid  which  it  had  placed,  or  was  thought  to 
have  intruded,  itself.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  different 
stand  of  the  clergy  of  the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies,  it 
is  hard  to  see  how  the  church  could  have  been  nationalized, 
or  have  continued  other  than  as  a  dwindling,  protesting 
sect,  like  the  nonjurors  of  Scotland,  alien,  and  uninfluential 
upon  the  civilization  amid  which  it  was  cast. 

The  proclamation  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
increased  the  embarrassment  of  the  clergy,  sufficiently  em- 
barrassed before.  They  must  either  mutilate  the  liturgy 
or  proclaim  rebellion  from  the  chancel  in  their  use  of  the 
prayers  for  the  king.  They  therefore  in  most  cases  shut 
up  the  churches.  When  Washington  and  his  army  occupied 
New  York,  the  rector  of  Trinity,  being  ill,  retired  with  his 
family  to  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.  Mr.  Inglis  was  left  in 
charge.  His  church  was  still  open.  He  paid  no  attention 
to  suggestions,  said  to  come  from  the  highest  quarters, 
that  he  should  omit  the  royal  prayers.  On  one  occasion, 
while  he  was  officiating,  a  company  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
armed  men  marched  into  the  church,  amid  beating  drums 
and  with  fixed  bayonets,  to  the  great  terror  of  the  con- 
gregation. The  terror  did  not  reach  the  chancel.  The 
intrepid  clergyman  kept  calmly  on  with  the  service,  omit- 
ting no  jot  or  tittle  of  it,  and  the  tumult  of  arms  was  stilled 
before  his  undaunted  serenity.  At  last  all  the  parish 
churches  were  closed  at  the  instance  of  the  vestry,  but  Mr. 
Inglis  remained  to  do  such  parochial  work  among  the  poor 


DH.  INGLIS  RECTOR    OF   TRINITY  CHURCH.  187 

and  sick  as  was  permitted  him.  When,  after  the  battle  of 
Long  Island,  General  Howe  returned  to  the  city  with  his 
army,  one  of  the  churches  was  again  opened.  In  the  great 
conflagration  which  followed  almost  immediately,  and 
which  consumed  nearly  a  third  of  the  city,  Trinity  Church 
was  destroyed,  as  well  as  two  hundred  houses  from  which 
the  parish  revenues  were  derived.  The  rector's  residence, 
the  two  Charity  School  houses,  the  valuable  library,  and  the 
parish  register  were  all  consumed.  The  loss  amounted  to 
over  twenty-five  thousand  pounds.  Dr.  Auchmuthy  re- 
turned to  New  York,  and  divine  service  was  soon  begun 
in  the  two  chapels  remaining  to  the  parish,  and  was  there- 
after regularly  maintained,  as  the  royal  army  remained  in 
occupation  till  the  end  of  the  war.  The  rector,  already 
enfeebled,  died  shortly  after  the  disasterous  fire,  in  the 
spring  of  1777.  He  was  a  good  man,  who  fell  on  evil 
times.  Dr.  Inglis  at  once  succeeded  Dr.  Auchmuthy  in 
the  rectorship.  He  was  inducted  into  office  by  Tryon,  the 
royal  governor,  amid  the  ruins  of  the  parish  church,  placing 
his  hand  upon  the  crumbling  walls.  He  had  earlier  made 
himself  especially  obnoxious  to  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  by 
his  pamphlet  in  answer  to  Thomas  Paine's  "  Common 
Sense."  He  still  continued  a  mark  of  patriotic  scorn;  for, 
on  the  occupation  of  the  city  by  the  royal  forces,  he  had 
drawn  up  the  petition  to  the  king,  praying  his  Majesty  to 
pardon  their  temporary  submission  to  the  rebel  forces,  and 
to  receive  the  city  and  community  again  under  his  gracious 
protection.  We  may  remember  as  an  excuse  that  Mr. 
Inglis  was  an  Irishman  by  birth;  but  the  knowledge  of 
this  fact  did  not  increase  his  popularity  at  that  time.  By 
an  irony  of  fate  his  property  at  Kingston  on  the  Hudson 
was  destroyed  by  British  troops  in  1777.  In  1779  he  was 
included  in  the  Act  of  attainder,  which  banished  his  person 
and  confiscated  his  estate.    On  the  establishment  of  the  new 


1 88  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  vi. 

government  he  resigned  his  office  as  rector,  November  i, 
I  783,  and  retired  to  Nova  Scotia,  where  thirty  thousand 
refugee  royalists  had  already  preceded  him,  and  where, 
after  four  years,  he  became  the  first  colonial  bishop  of 
the  Church  of  England.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Nova  Scotia  in  Lambeth  Chapel  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  August  12,  1787,  just  six  months  after  his 
successor  in  the  rectorship  of  Trinity  Church,  Dr.  Provoost, 
had  been  consecrated  first  Bishop  of  New  York,  in  the  same 
place,  by  the  same  hands. 

Although  the  rectorship  of  Dr.  Provoost  did  not  occur 
until  after  the  Revolution,  we  may  well  recall  the  circum- 
stance here,  as  his  was  the  last  election  to  that  office  before 
the  formation  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and 
thus  terminate  the  history  of  the  colonial  church  in  New 
York. 

Immediately  on  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Inglis,  and  a  few 
days  before  the  evacuation  of  the  city  by  the  British,  the 
Rev.  Benjamin  Moore,  assistant  minister,  was  chosen  to 
be  rector.  He  was  not  inducted  into  office  until  after 
another  election,  seventeen  years  later,  in  consequence 
of  the  proceedings  relating  to  the  corporation  during  the 
change  in  the  government.  To  bring  the  charter  of  the 
parish  into  conformity  with  the  constitution  of  the  State 
and  the  political  changes  which  had  occurred,  an  act  of  the 
legislature  was  passed,  April  17,  1784;  and  the  vestry  ap- 
pointed by  that  act  disregarded  the  election  of  Mr.  Moore, 
and  proceeded  to  elect  Rev.  Samuel  Provoost.  This  vestry 
was  largely,  if  not  wholly,  composed  of  Whig  Episcopa- 
lians ;  and  its  members,  having  been  obliged  to  remove 
from  their  homes  during  the  war,  disputed  the  validity  of 
any  election  of  vestrymen  while  the  city  was  in  possession 
of  the  British.  Their  position  was  affirmed  by  the  council 
of  the  legislature  appointed  for  the  temporary  government 


REV.  SAMUEL  PROVOOST,  RECTOR  OF  TRINITY.      1 89 

of  the  southern  part  of  the  State,  and  Mr.  Moore's  election 
was  in  consequence  disregarded. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Provoost  was  in  great  favor  with  the 
new  vestry  by  reason  of  his  patriotic  sentiments,  which 
had  induced  him  to  resign  his  post  as  assistant  minister  in 
1770,  and  retire  from  the  city.  He  was  as  ardent  a  patriot 
as  Dr.  Inglis  was  a  loyalist ;  and  soon  after  his  becoming 
rector  of  Trinity  he  was  made  a  regent  of  the  University 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  elected  chaplain  of  the 
Continental  Congress  when  that  body,  in  1785,  removed 
from  Trenton  to  New  York. 

This  is,  however,  anticipating  the  history  of  the  church 
subsequent  to  the  Revolution.  When  that  epoch-making 
war  began,  the  church  folk  in  the  province  of  New  York 
were  estimated  at  about  one  fifteenth  of  the  population. 
In  addition  to  the  strong  mother-parish  of  Trinity  Church, 
with  its  stately  building  and  its  two  large  chapels,  St. 
George's  and  St.  Paul's,  there  were  also  in  the  province 
the  flourishing  church  of  St.  Peter's  in  Albany,  and  the 
small  churches  at  Rye  and  Westchester  on  the  mainland, 
at  Hempstead  and  Jamaica  on  Long  Island,  and  at  Rich- 
mond on  Staten  Island.  These  constituted  the  formative 
root  of  the  aftergrowth  which  we  are  to  trace  when 
once  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  is  formed  out  of  the 
various  groups  of  colonial  churches ;  an  ecclesiastical  body, 
national  in  aim  and  extent. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   COLONIAL   CHURCH    IN    NEW   JERSEY. 

There  is  no  trace  of  the  church  in  New  Jersey  until  it 
became  a  single  province  by  the  union  of  East  and  West 
Jersey  under  Queen  Anne,  in  1702.  The  territory  had 
been  given,  nearly  forty  years  before,  to  Lord  John  Berke- 
ley and  Sir  George  Carteret  by  the  Duke  of  York.  When, 
however,  in  1666,  Carteret  reached  New  York,  he  found 
that  settlers  had  already  taken  up  their  residence  at  what 
is  now  Elizabeth,  having  been  confirmed  in  their  posses- 
sions by  Nicolls,  the  deputy  governor  of  New  York,  in 
ignorance  of  the  Duke  of  York's  gift  to  the  two  courtiers. 
New  settlers  came  in,  drawn  by  the  "  concessions,"  present 
and  prospective,  issued  by  the  proprietors.  They  came 
especially  from  the  New  Haven  colony,  and  in  1666 
Newark  was  planted  by  them.  In  1676  the  line  between 
East  and  West  Jersey  was  drawn,  being  virtually  the  Dela- 
ware River ;  and  by  sale  and  other  acts  of  transference,  first 
West  and  then  East  Jersey  became  the  property  of  Wil- 
liam Penn  by  1682.  This  occasioned  a  large  immigration  of 
Quakers  into  the  territory  of  West  Jersey ;  and  a  large 
influx  of  emigrants  from  Scotland  came  into  East  Jersey, 
making  the  Presbyterians  strong  there. 

After  the  English  Revolution  of  1688,  the  connection  of 
New  Jersey  with  New  York,  which  James  H.  had  effected, 
was  broken  off.  A  very  disorganized  state  of  affairs  existed 
for  ten  years,  until  both  provinces  were  consolidated  by 
Queen  Anne  into  one,  under  Lord  Cornbury,  as  governor, 

190 


KEITH'S  AND    TALBOT'S   COMING.  191 

in  I  702.  It  was  in  this  year  that  the  two  agents  of  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  Keith  and 
Talbot,  visited  New  Jersey,  where,  as  yet,  no  Episcopal 
church  existed. 

Colonel  Lewis  Morris,  in  1 700,  had  addressed  a  memorial 
to  the  authorities  at  home  "  concerning  the  state  of  religion 
in  the  Jerseys."  He  stated  that  there  were  in  Elizabeth- 
town  and  Newark  some  few  churchmen,  and  about  twelve 
communicants  all  t'old  in  the  provinces.  An  old  ruin- 
ous court-house  had  been  fitted  up  as  a  church  at  Perth 
Amboy,  the  capital  city,  where  the  Rev.  Edward  Puttock 
had  officiated,  as  well  as  at  other  outlying  places.  He 
suggested  measures  for  advancing  the  church ;  and  the 
visit  of  Keith  was  in  accordance  with  his  wish.  Keith 
preached  first  at  Amboy  in  October,  1702,  and  then  in 
many  other  of  the  ten  towns  of  East  Jersey,  and  especially 
in  the  town  hall  at  Burlington  in  West  Jersey.  He 
created  a  great  impression.  The  Quakers,  whom  he  had 
left  to  take  orders  in  the  Church  of  England,  were  much 
incensed;  but  a  number,  who  like  him  had  become  dis- 
affected, gave  him  a  hearty  welcome  and  became  adherents 
of  the  church. 

There  is  trace  of  ministrations  by  Rev.  Alexander  Inness 
prior  to  Keith's  coming,  and  occasional  services  had  from 
time  to  time  been  held  at  Burlington  by  visiting  clergy 
from  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  But  now  the  glow  of 
enthusiasm  was  such  that,  aided  by  the  encouragement 
and  earnest  sermons  of  Rev.  Evan  Evans,  rector  of  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  and  by  the  exhortations  of  Rev.  John 
Talbot,  who  accompanied  Keith,  a  beginning  was  made  for 
a  church  building.  Gifts  came  from  Mr.  Myles,  rector  of 
King's  Chapel,  Boston,  from  churchmen  in  Philadelphia, 
and  from  Mr.  Robert  Wheeler,  a  merchant  of  Burlington, 
and  others;   and  the  corner-stone  of  St.  Mary's  Church 


192  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  vii. 

was  laid  by  Talbot,  March  25,  1703,  being  the  feast  of 
the  Annunciation.  It  was  sufficiently  finished  for  ser- 
vice by  August;  and  on  the  13th  of  that  month,  Keith, 
on  his  return  from  the  South,  preached  the  first  ser- 
mon in  it.  It  was  not  completely  finished  until  June, 
1 704.  On  Whitsunday  of  that  year,  Talbot  administered 
the  holy  sacrament  in  the  church,  for  the  first  time, 
though  services  had  been  held  in  it  from  the  time  when 
Keith  preached  there  before  Lord  Coi^bury.  A  warrant 
was  issued  by  the  governor.  Lord  Cornbury,  for  a  patent 
to  incorporate  the  parish  under  the  name  of  St.  Anne,  in 
honor  of  the  Queen,  October  4,  1704;  but  by  some  ne- 
glect the  charter  was  not  passed  until  January  25,  1709, 
when  the  name  of  St.  Mary  was  substituted.  In  1705 
Mr.  Talbot  became  rector  of  the  parish.  He  proved  a  veri- 
table apostle  to  the  churches  in  New  Jersey.  His  labors 
were  so  great,  and  his  history  so  singular  and  conspicuous, 
that  it  is  fitting  some  detailed  account  of  him  should  be  given. 
He  first  appears  as  a  fellow-missionary  of  Rev.  George 
Keith,  in  his  tour  of  observation  through  the  colonies  on 
behalf  of  the  Venerable  S.  P.  G.  He  was  chaplain  of  the 
"  Centurion,"  the  ship  which  brought  Keith  over;  and  by 
conversation  with  him  and  Colonel  Lewis  Morris,  governor 
of  New  Jersey,  who  was  also  a  passenger,  he  became  so 
much  interested  in  the  projected  missionary  tour  that  he 
resolved  to  become  Keith's  companion  in  it.  He  was  at 
this  time  fifty-seven  years  of  age,  and  rector  of  Fetherne, 
Gloucestershire,  a  parish  in  no  way  suited  to  a  man  of  his 
energy  and  ability,  containing  only  twenty  houses  and  a 
hundred  and  twenty  inhabitants.  He  was  a  gentleman  by 
birth,  being  the  son  of  Thomas  Talbot,  of  Grenville  Hall, 
Norfolk.  He  was  a  scholar,  having  been  admitted  Master 
of  Arts  at  Cambridge  University  in  1671.  Keith  cordially 
welcomed  his  cooperation,  and  until  1705,  when  the  former 


JOHN   TALBOT. 


193 


left  America,  they  journeyed  together  through  ten  of  the 
colonial  provinces.  He  would  not  leave  the  society's  ser- 
vice when  Keith  returned  to  England,  though  he  had 
offers  of  easier  work  and  a  larger  stipend.  When,  after 
his  acceptance  of  the  rectorship  of  St.  Mary's,  Burlington, 
in  1705,  his  parish  of  Fetherne  was  sequestered  on  account 
of  his  non-residence,  he  became  completely  identified  with 
the  colonial  clergy.  His  labors  were  incessant,  and  ex- 
tended over  a  wide  field.  He  had  a  restless  temperament, 
which  kept  him  awake  to  every  call  made  upon  his  services. 
He  traveled  all  over  the  province  of  New  Jersey,  building 
churches,  and  earnestly  seeking  for  clergy  to  work  them. 
His  zeal  often  outran  his  discretion,  for  no  sufficient  sup- 
plies came  ;  and  several  of  the  churches  built  in  hope  were 
deserted  in  despair. 

The  whole  aspect  of  affairs  early  convinced  Talbot  of  the 
indispensable  necessity  for  a  resident  bishop,  if  the  church 
was  to  extend  itself  or  develop  its  real  power.  Within  a 
year  of  his  settlement  at  Burlington  he  journeyed  to  Eng- 
land as  bearer  of  a  memorial  to  the  queen,  praying  for  a 
suffragan  bishop.  The  mission  was,  as  all  such  missions 
were,  fruitless ;  but  this  did  not  diminish  Talbot's  interest 
in  a  matter  he  felt  to  be  so  vital,  and  for  twenty  years  he 
was  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season,  urging  it.  On  his 
return  in  1 708,  he  preached  in  many  places  out  of  the 
province,  as  well  as  in  it,  and  declares,  "  I  am  forced  to 
turn  itinerant  again,  for  the  care  of  all  the  churches  from 
East  to  West  Jersey  is  upon  me;  what  is  worst,  I  can't 
confirm  any,  even  had  I  a  deacon  to  help  me."  His 
earnest  appeals  for  the  establishment  of  the  episcopate  in 
America  begot  the  suspicion  that  he  was  unfriendly  to  the 
government.  It  involved  him  in  several  serious  and 
acrimonious  disputes  with  Governor  Hunter,  of  New 
York.      He  was  accused  of  being  a  Jacobite;  of  "  incor- 


194  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  vii. 

porating  the  Jacobites  in  the  Jerseys  under  the  name  of  a 
church,  in  order  to  sanctify  his  insolence  and  sedition  to  the 
government. "  The  Venerable  Society  was  warned  by  Gov- 
ernor Hunter,  in  1715,  that  if  it  "  did  not  take  more  care  in 
the  choice  of  its  missionaries,  instead  of  estabHshing  religion, 
they  would  destroy  all  government  and  good  manners." 

Talbot  indignantly  denied  all  such  charges.  He  vehe- 
mently declared  to  the  Bishop  of  London  that  he  "  was  a 
Williamite  from  the  beginning,"  and  prayed,  "The  Lord 
rebuke  the  evil  spirit  of  lying  and  slander  that  is  gone  out 
against  the  church."  His  warden,  Jeremiah  Bass,  who 
was  secretary  of  the  province,  clerk  of  the  council,  and 
prothonotary  of  the  Supreme  Court,  declared  the  gov- 
ernor's charge  to  be  entirely  false.  His  vestrymen  warmly 
espoused  his  cause,  and  asserted  that  the  accusation  was 
"  a  very  false  and  groundless  scandal."  Talbot  himself,  in 
his  letter  to  the  Venerable  Society,  spoke  as  follows :  "  I 
call  God  to  witness  I  know  no  soul  in  the  church  of  Bur- 
lington, nor  in  any  other  church  I  have  planted,  but  is 
well  affected  to  the  Protestant  Church  of  England  and 
present  government  in  the  house  of  Hanover;  therefore 
he  that  accused  us  all  for  Jacobites  hath  the  greater  sin." 
He  survived  these  troubles,  and  continued  in  good  relations 
with  the  Venerable  Society,  who,  on  his  visit  to  England 
in  1720,  applied  the  interest  of  Archbishop  Tenison's 
legacy  for  an  American  bishopric  (as  the  terms  of  the  be- 
quest allowed)  to  his  maintenance  while  in  England.  He 
returned  in  the  latter  part  of  1722,  and  continued  his  work 
at  Burlington,  and,  though  now  seventy-seven  years  old, 
was  full  of  zeal  and  delight  in  it. . 

It  was  during  this  visit  to  England  that  he  is  said  to  have 
sought  and  obtained  consecration  as  bishop  from  the  non- 
jurors. The  question  concerning  this  is  one  which  has  no 
practical  bearing  on  the  history  of  the  church,  as  Talbot 


TALBOT'S  ALLEGED   CONSECRATLON. 


195 


never  exercised  the  prerogative  of  a  bishop,  and  carefully 
.concealed  the  fact,  if  fact  it  was.  It  has  been  accepted  as 
a  fact  by  most  writers  on  this  period  of  the  church's  his- 
tory. Bishop  Wilberforce,  Canon  Anderson,  Dr.  Hawks, 
and  Dr.  Hills  1  assert  it ;  but  the  monograph  of  Dr.  Fulton 
on  "  The  Nonjuring  Bishops  in  America "  -  indicates 
that  this  was  a  mistake,  arising  from  confounding  John 
Talbot  with  another  man  of  the  same  surname,  whose 
baptismal  name  is  not  given  in  the  register  of  consecration. 
The  grounds  for  establishing  the  fact  are  chiefly  the  asser- 
tions of  a  violent  enemy  of  Talbot,  Rev.  Mr.  Urmston, 
who  urges  the  accusation,  amid  many  other  aspersions  of 
his  character,  as  an  evidence  of  his  hypocrisy  and  perfidy ; 
and  also  an  episcopal  seal,  which  Talbot  is  not  known  to 
have  used,  or  even  seen,  but  an  impression  of  which  his 
wife  afifixed  to  her  will  in  1730,  on  which  seal  were  en- 
graved a  miter  and  the  monogram  of  Talbot,  or,  as  some 
decipher  it,  I.  Talbot.  This  was  three  years  after  Talbot's 
own  death. 

The  reasons  adduced  for  rejecting  this  testimony  of  the 
vociferous  Urmston  and  the  silent  signet-ring  are: 

First,  the  improbability  of  an  old  man  seventy-seven 
years  of  age  seeking  consecration  for  himself  in  a  sphere 
where  great  activity  was  needed. 

Second,  the  gross  inconsistency  of  a  Williamite  seeking 
consecration  of  the  nonjurors,  from  whom  he  could  not 
have  obtained  it  without  a  dissimulation  of  his  political  sen- 
timents, alien  to  Talbot's  character. 

Third,  the  incompleteness  and  confusion  of  the  record 
of   consecration   given  by   PercivaP   and    Satterbury,*   in 

1  "  History  of  the  Churcli  in  Burlington,"  pp.  179-204,  211,  247. 

2  See  Perry's  "  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,"  vol.  i.,  p.  541. 

3  "  Percival  on  the  Apostolical  Succession,"  pp.   132-134,  Am.  ed. 

•t  "  History  of  the  Non-jurors,"  p.  364.     References  given  by  Dr,  Fulton 
from  Dr.  Hills. 


196  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  vii. 

neither  of  which  accounts  does  the  surname  John  ap- 
pear, but  only  Talbot,  and  wherein  the  dates  are  in- 
accurate, the   consecration  of Talbot  being  ascribed 

to  the  year  1723-24,  as  performed  by  Ralph  Taylor  (who 
died  in  1722),  together  with  Robert  Hilton.  John  Tal- 
bot had  returned  to  America  in  the  latter  part  of  1722. 
Either  the  date  given  by  Percival  is  inaccurate,  or  John 
Talbot  could  not  have  been  the  person  consecrated.  Per- 
cival's  references  for  his  data  are  partly  to  "  some  curious 
printed  documents  in  my  own  possession,"  and  to  informa- 
tion derived  from  "  the  clergymen  who  were  still  living  in 
1839."  The  contemporaneous  record  of  Dr.  Rawlinson, 
since  found  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  omits  the  date,  also 
the  Christian  name  of  Talbot,  and  changes  Hilton's  name 
from  Robert  to  Ric ;  it  is  therefore  incomplete  and  in- 
conclusive. 

Fourth,  to  have  secured  a  nonjuror  consecration  would 
have  frustrated  Talbot's  chosen  plan.  It  would  either 
have  split  the  colonial  churches  into  two  contending  fac- 
tions, while  Talbot  earnestly  labored  for  their  unity ;  or,  if 
the  churches  had  all  gone  in  one  way,  it  would  have  sepa- 
rated them  from  the  Church  of  England,  whose  authority 
Talbot  was  especially  anxious  to  preserve.  He,  at  the 
very  .time  of  the  accusation  by  Urmston,  was  securing  a 
glebe  and  parsonage  to  his  successors,  on  condition  that 
each  of  them  should  be  "  presbyter  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, as  by  law  iiozv  established  "  ;  and  "  conforming  to  and 
complying  with  the  rubrics  and  canons  of  the  Church  of 
England  as  aforesaid." 

Fifth,  the  testimony  of  Rev.  Mr.  Urmston  that  Talbot 
claimed  a  nonjuror  consecration  is  open  to  great  suspicion. 
Urmston  bore  a  disreputable  character  in  North  Carolina, 
in  Maryland,  and  in  Philadelphia,  where  for  a  while  he 
served  at  Christ  Church.     He  was  dismissed  from  Christ 


TALBOT  AND    URMSTON.  1 97 

Church  by  the  vestry  for  "  conduct  not  proper  to  be  men- 
tioned or  allowed  in  any  sober  society."  Talbot  was  mixed 
up  with  these  proceedings,  and  supplied  Christ  Church  for 
a  few  months  after  Urmston's  dismission.  Hence  the 
drunken  wrath  which  raged  without  bounds,  and  which 
culminated  in  the  accusation  of  Talbot's  claim  to  be  a 
bishop.  It  is  from  Urmston  that  Henderson  and  Governor 
Hunter  received  and  repeated  the  slander.  The  one  cir- 
cumstantial statement  that  Talbot  "  convened  all  the  clergy 
to  meet,  put  on  his  robes,  and  demanded  episcopal  obedi- 
ence from  them,"  is  refuted  by  Governor  Keith,  who  de- 
clared in  a  letter  in  1 724  that  "  the  clergymen  accused  of 
claiming  the  authority  and  office  of  bishop  do  not  own  to 
any  such  pretension."  Urmston  did  not  pretend  to  be 
an  eye-witness  of  the  transaction,  and  there  is  no  other 
witness. 

Sixth,  the  existence  of  a  ring  in  the  possession  of  Mrs. 
Talbot,  engraved  with  a  miter  and  a  monogram  of  the 
family  name  Talbot,  never  used  by  John  Talbot,  and  pos- 
sibly a  present  from  Bishop  Talbot,  of  Durham,  is  too 
slight  evidence  to  confirm  so  untrustworthy  and  inimical 
an  accusation  as  that  of  the  disreputable  Urmston. 

It  has  seemed  best  to  dwell  on  this  personal  incident 
thus  fully,  using  the  material  so  elaborately  compiled  and 
combined  by  Dr.  Fulton,  because  of  its  bearing  on  the 
character  of  a  devoted  man,  and  its  influence  on  his  for- 
tunes. His  accuser  carried  his  malignity  across  the  sea, 
and  denounced  Talbot  to  the  Bishop  of  London  and  the 
Venerable  Society.  His  own  worthless  character  was  not 
known  to  these,  and  Talbot  was  personally  unknown  to  the 
new  Bishop  of  London  and  the  new  board  of  managers  of 
the  S.  P.  G.  The  result  was  that  Talbot  was  virtually 
dismissed  from  the  roll  of  the  society's  missionaries,  the 
payment   of  his  salary  being  suspended  "  until  he  could 


198  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  vii. 

clear  himself  of  the  facts  laid  to  his  charge."  The  facts, 
however,  which  the  Venerable  Society  adduced  were  not 
the  charge  of  episcopal  consecration  by  the  nonjurors,  of 
which  no  notice  was  taken,  but  that  "  he  would  never  take 
the  oaths  to  the  king,  and  never  prayed  for  him  by  name 
in  the  Hturgy."  As  this  action  of  the  Venerable  Society 
had  been  taken  on  the  complaint  of  the  Bishop  of  London, 
Talbot  wrote  him  a  letter,  in  which  these  sentences  oc- 
cur: "  I  understand  that  I  have  been  discharged  from  the 
society  for  exercising  acts  of  jurisdiction  over  my  brethren 
the  missionaries.  This  is  very  strange  to  me,  for  I  know 
nothing  about  it,  nor  anybody  else  in  all  the  world.  I 
could  disprove  it  by  a  thousand  witnesses.  ...  I  have 
suffered  great  wrong  for  no  offense  or  fault  that  I  know 
of."  Being  dismissed  from  his  position  in  the  society,  he 
neither  attempted  to  create  a  schism,  nor  to  set  up  a  claim 
to  an  episcopate,  w^hich,  had  he  possessed  the  right  to  it, 
it  was  now  the  time  to  assert.  "  Weary  and  old  with  ser- 
vice," he  bore  his  burden  with  a  quiet  spirit;  and  such 
was  the  meekness  of  his  conduct  that  when  the  Bishop  of 
London's  commissary  arrived,  he  wrote  back  in  his  behalf, 
and  spoke  of  him  as  "  a  man  universally  beloved,  even  by 
the  dissenters." 

He  was  not  reinstated.  The  charges  made  were  of  too 
delicate  a  political  character  to  be  dismissed  without  ir- 
refragable proof,  which,  at  the  distance,  it  was  hard  to  fur- 
nish in  satisfactory  measure.  He  died  two  years  after,  on 
the  last  day  of  November,  1727,  being  eighty-two  years 
old,  leaving  a  reputation  for  devoted  labor  and  exalted 
character  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  malignant  accusa- 
tions of  a  disreputable  opponent.  But  if  not  a  disguised 
bishop,  he  was  a  visible  apostle  of  the  faith,  "  in  labors 
more  abundant,"  "  in  journeyings  often,"  "  in  perils  in 
the  wilderness,  in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among  false 


l^ALBOTS   CI/AKACTEK  AXD  LABORS.  199 

brethren."  "  The  care  of  all  the  churches  "  was  upon  him  ; 
and  walking  among  them  in  the  sincerity  and  devotion  of 
a  man  who  took  up  the  labors  of  a  missionary  when  fifty- 
seven  years  old,  and  continued  unwearying  in  them  until 
past  eighty  years  of  age,  he  was  in  the  province  "  a  living- 
epistle,  known  and  read  of  all  men."  His  memory  has  al- 
ways been  cherished  in  New  Jersey  with  abundant  honor. 
He  was  the  fostering  father  of  the  infant  Church  in  that 
province,  and  to  him  more  than  to  any  one  else  is  due  the 
strong  root  from  which  has  grown  so  goodly  a  tree.  His 
body  was  buried  within  St.  Mary's  Church,  which  he 
built,  and  which  he  had  served  nearly  twenty- five 
years.  One  hundred  and  fifty-one  years  afterward,  in 
1878,  a  mural  tablet  was  erected  there  to  his  memory, 
crowned  with  an  enlarged  facsimile  of  the  famous  seal ;  and 
in  the  inscription  stand  the  words,  "  A  Bishop  by  Non- 
juror Consecration,  1722."  The  legend  is  thus  perpetu- 
ated in  the  letter  engraved  in  stone;  but  his  more  enduring 
memorial  survives  in  the  apostolic  spirit  which  inspired 
him,  and  to  which  the  effect  of  his  labors  bear  continuous 
witness  still. 

In  the  same  year  (1705)  in  which  Talbot  became  rector 
of  St.  Mary's  at  Burlington,  tiie  Rev.  John  Brooke  was 
sent  as  missionary  by  the  Venerable  Society,  and  was 
placed  by  Lord  Cornbury  at  Elizabethtown.  His  was  a 
short  but  efficient  ministry.  He  died  in  1  707.  Yet,  during 
his  life  in  New  Jersey,  he  not  only  ministered  at  Elizabeth- 
town,  but  also  at  seven  other  stations  fifty  miles  apart.  He 
is  said  to  have  possessed  in  an  unusual  degree  the  faculty 
of  arousing  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their  duty  toward  God, 
himself  being  earnest,  zealous,  and  self-sacrificing.  He  had 
the  courage  of  his  convictions,  too,  and  assisted  the  escape 
of  Rev.  Mr.  Thoroughgood  Moor,  who,  while  at  Burling- 
ton, was  silenced   by  Lord  Cornbury,  and   imprisoned   in 


200  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  vii. 

Fort  Anne,  N.  Y.,  for  refusing  the  sacrament  to  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor Ingoldsby,  a  notorious  evil  liver.  He  laid 
firmly  the  foundation  of  St.  John's  Church,  Elizabethtown, 
and  reported  that  churches  had  been  commenced  at  both 
Amboy  and  Freehold. 

He  was  succeeded  in  i  709  by  Rev.  Edward  Vaughan, 
who  continued  his  labors  at  Elizabethtown  and  in  several 
other  parishes  for  thirty-eight  years.  Vaughan  was  an 
admirable  and  interesting  man,  and  his  public  ministrations 
were  marked  by  great  solemnity  and  tenderness,  "  espe- 
cially in  the  administration  of  the  holy  Supper."  Being 
eloquent  in  public  and  engaging  in  private,  his  long  labors 
made  an  indelible  impression  on  the  early  church  life  of 
New  Jersey,  which  province  was  especially  fortunate  in 
the  character  and  gifts  of  its  early  missionaries. 

This  fact  is  signally  illustrated  by  Dr.  Vaughan's  suc- 
cessor, Rev.  Thomas  Bradley  Chandler.  He  was  a  de- 
scendant of  Colonel  John  Chandler,  of  Andover,  Mass., 
and  was  born  in  what  is  now  Woodstock,  Conn.,  in  1726. 
He  was  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1745,  and  then 
studied  under  Dr.  Johnson  at  Stratford.  Before  he  was 
of  age  to  be  ordained  he  was,  in  1747,  called  by  the  vestry 
of  St.  John's  Church,  Elizabethtown,  as  catechist  and  lay 
reader ;  and  permission  was  asked  of  the  Venerable  Society 
that  he  might  be  permitted  to  receive  holy  orders  at  the 
proper  time.  He  was  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  London 
in  1751-  He  at  once  returned  and  entered  upon  his  work 
as  rector  of  St.  John's,  and,  extending  his  labors  to  Wood- 
bridge,  was  soon  made  missionary  at  both  places,  at  his 
own  request. 

Judging  from  his  reports  to  the  society,  he  seems  to  have 
dreaded  the  effects  of  the  harmony  and  good  understand- 
ing which  had  grown  up  between  churchmen  and  tliose 
without  the  fold.      This  seemed  to  him,  in  those  days  of 


THOMAS  BRADLEY  CHANDLER.  20I 

political  and  ecclesiastical  contention,  to  savor  of  indiffer- 
ence. He  had  seen  the  church  gain  rapidly  in  times  of 
controversy ;  and  he  feared  that  the  charity  toward  dis- 
senters, which  granted  there  was  but  little  difference 
between  the  church  and  themselves,  might  generate  the 
opinion  that  there  was  no  material  advantage  in  conform- 
ing to  the  church.  Yet  there  was  no  man  more  capable 
of  taking  a  broad-minded  view  of  both  sides  of  a  question. 
He  was,  by  reason  of  his  well-balanced  intellect  and  char- 
acter, deservedly  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  the  American 
clergy.  His  "Appeal  to  the  Public,"  and  "Defense"  of 
it  (the  result  of  the  controversy  concerning  the  appoint- 
ment of  bishops  for  America)  gave  him  justly  great 
prominence  as  a  polemical  divine,  while  it  showed  the 
sedateness  of  his  character  and  convictions.  Unhappily 
the  dread  of  political  bishops  could  not  be  dissipated  by 
a  reasonable  appeal  for  a  spiritual  episcopate.  But  Dr. 
Chandler  gave  a  clear  and  dispassionate  statement  of  what 
the  colonial  churches  desired ;  and  doubtless  to  this  so 
famous  pamphlet,  and  the  controversy  stirred  by  it,  is  in 
great  measure  to  be  ascribed  the  sudden  cessation  of  op- 
position to  an  American  episcopate,  when  once  the  success 
of  the  Revolution  had  dissevered  absolutely  the  church 
from  the  state.  He  was  not  simply  a  scholar  and  thinker. 
He  was  untiring  in  his  zeal  in  missionary  labors,  the 
effects  of  which  were  both  great  and  permanent.  He  stood 
firmly  against  the  unseemly  and  unbalanced  enthusiasm 
roused  by  Whitefield  in  his  visits  to  New  Jersey,  for  he 
was  convinced  of  the  unhealthiness  of  such  unrestrained 
excitement,  and  was  much  repelled  by  Whitefield's  disre- 
gard of  the  church,  whose  claims  were  to  him  paramount. 
He  refused  his  pulpit  to  the  popular  preacher,  to  the  great 
umbrage  of  the  religious  public,  being  the  first  to  do  so  in 
the  region  of  the  Middle  Colonies.     Yet,  after  noting  that 


202  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  vii. 

Whitefield  had  been  received  on  his  second,  as  on  his 
first,  visit  to  Philadelphia  in  the  churches  there,  he  re- 
marks:  "  Some  years  ago  very  few  dissenters  were  to  be 
seen  in  church  on  any  occasion;  but  now  they  sometimes 
crowd  thither  in  such  numbers  as  to  be  more  numerous 
than  our  own  people  that  are  present." 

When  the  Revolution  approached,  his  position  was 
characteristic  of  him.  He  disapproved  the  measures  of 
Parliament  which  provoked  the  animosity  of  his  country- 
men ;  but  he  could  not  countenance  an  appeal  to  arms  to 
resist  them.  He  was  out  of  favor  with  both  parties,  yet 
by  the  nobility  of  his  character  commanded  the  respect  of 
each.  He  did  what  he  could  by  his  pen  and  his  tongue  to 
avert  the  rupture.  When  it  became  inevitable,  he  returned 
to  England.  There  he  stayed  ten  years,  from  i  775  to  1 785, 
living  in  intimate  relations  with  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury and  other  dignitaries  of  the  church,  and  many 
distinguished  persons.  While  abroad  he  was  offered  the 
bishopric  of  Nova  Scotia,  which  his  health  compelled  him 
to  decline.  In  1783,  the  war  being  ended,  his  old  church, 
St.  John's,  at  Elizabethtown,  asked  him  to  come  back  and 
resume  his  duties  as  rector;  and  when  he  returned,  in  1 785, 
though  his  health  was  insufficient  for  the  discharge  of  a 
rector's  duties,  the  vestry  insisted  on  his  retaining  the  office 
as  long  as  he  lived.  Though  he  never  attempted  any 
public  service  after  his  return,  he  exerted  a  marked  influ- 
ence by  the  weight  of  his  counsels  on  the  organization  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

Chandler  and  Talbot  are  the  two  names  most  conspicuous 
in  the  annals  of  the  colonial  church  in  New  Jersey ;  but 
the  province  was  also  well  served  by  other  faithful  men. 
The  names  of  Holbrook  and  Harwood  and  Weyman,  of 
Campbell  and  Odell  and  Hardin,  are  names  which  tell  of 
faithful  and  well-directed  labor  for  the  church's  sake.     By 


CHURCH   CONDITION  BEFORE    THE  REl'OLUT/ON.  203 

them  and  others  Hkc  them  the  church  grew  and  spread,  so 
that  in  1770  Chandler  states  that  there  were  "  elcx'en  mis- 
sionaries in  the  district,  none  bhimable,  some  eminently- 
useful  " ;  and  of  the  church  buildings:  "we  have  now 
several  that  make  a  handsome  appearance,  particularly  at 
Burlington,  Shrewsbury,  New  Brunswick,  and  Newark, 
and  all  the  rest  are  in  good  repair;  and  the  congregations 
in  general  appear  as  much  improved  as  the  churches  they 
asserrible  in."  The  name  of  Rev.  Thomas  Thompson  may 
well  close  the  list.  He  was  a  fellow  of  Christ's  College, 
Cambridge,  who,  after  five  years  of  devoted  labor  as  a 
missionary  in  Monmouth  County,  left  America  in  1751  to 
become  a  missionary  to  Africa.  His  labors  on  the  coast 
of  Guinea  are  recorded  in  his  account  of  his  two  missionary 
voyages  to  Africa,  which  constitutes  the  first  contribution 
from  America  to  the  literature  of  foreign  missions. 

The  province  of  New  Jersey  was  a  special  scene  of  war- 
fare during  the  Revolution.  The  effects  on  the  church 
were,  of  course,  most  disastrous.  The  missionaries  were 
loyalists;  and  the  churches,  after  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, were  closed,  because  the  clergy  could  not  read 
the  full  liturgy,  and  would  not  read  a  mutilated  one.  Yet 
so  prominent  had  become  the  church  in  the  province  that 
it  was  in  New  Brunswick  that  the  first  meeting  of  clergy 
was  held  which  led  to  the  movement  for  the  consolidation 
of  the  colonial  churches  into  a  national  Episcopal  Church. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    COLONIAL   CHURCH    IN    PENNSYLVANIA    AND 
DELAWARE. 

The  celebrated  William  Penn,  both  courtier  and  Quaker, 
was  sole  proprietor  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware.  His 
friendly  relations  with  the  royal  court  and  his  steadfast 
adherence  to  the  cause  of  the  Quakers  account  both  for 
his  possession  of  the  territory  and  the  character  of  its 
colonization.  In  1681  the  territory  had  been  granted  him 
by  the  crown  in  discharge  of  a  debt  of  sixteen  thousand 
pounds  due  to  his  father,  Admiral  Penn.  The  charter  fix- 
ing the  boundaries  of  Pennsylvania  was  in  some  respects 
sufficiently  indefinite  to  warrant  Penn  in  claiming  the  lands 
on  the  Delaware  which  had  been  settled  by  the  Dutch  and 
Swedes ;  which  claim  was  conceded  by  the  Duke  of  York  in 
1682.  This  gave  him  possession  of  the  waters  and  shores 
of  the  river  and  bay  of  Delaware  to  the  ocean. 

While  a  student  at  Oxford,  Penn  was  greatly  impressed 
by  the  preaching  of  a  Quaker  minister,  Thomas  Loe.  In 
consequence  of  his  neglect  of  the  regular  worship  in  the 
college  chapel,  he  was  expelled  from  the  university,  and 
was  ordered  abroad  into  gay  society  by  his  father.  On 
his  return,  again  meeting  with  Loe,  his  religious  nature 
was  stirred  anew,  and  he  embraced  the  religious  ideas  of 
the  Quakers,  about  1667,  with  an  ardor  and  enthusiasm 
which  from  that  time  never  flagged.  He  aided  the  emi- 
gration of  a  large  number  of  Friends  to  West  Jersey,  of 

204 


PENN  AND  HIS  SETTLEMENT.  205 

which  he  had  become  possessed  with  other  Quakers,  in 
1677;  and  when  he  received  the  crown  grant  of  Pennsyl- 
vania he  conceived  a  plan  of  colonization  on  a  far  larger 
scale,  incited  by  the  desire  to  provide  a  place  of  refuge  for 
his  persecuted  brethren. 

Two  emigrant  ships  were  sent  out  in  the  autumn  of 
1 68 1,  with  William  Markham  as  deputy  governor;  and  in 
August,  1682,  Penn  himself  followed  with  a  large  body  of 
Quaker  colonists.  He  arrived  in  October,  just  after  the  site 
of  Philadelphia  had  been  chosen.  The  future  city  was  at 
once  laid  out  in  that  rectangular  style  so  characteristic  of 
it,  and  before  Penn's  return  to  England,  in  1684,  had  three 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  houses,  many  of  them  three 
stories  high.  No  colony  ever  grew  more  rapidly  in  num- 
bers, with  the  possible  exception  of  Massachusetts.  Penn 
spared  no  exertions  to  advance  its  interests  and  well-being. 
His  address  to  the  province  in  the  beginning  ceded  the 
right  of  self-government  to  the  people,  and  came  nearer  the 
realization  of  government  "  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people  "  than  any  other  colony  of  that  day. 
The  first  Assembly,  which  met  at  Chester,  guaranteed  re- 
ligious freedom.  The  Indians  were  propitiated  and  made 
allies  by  kindness  and  justice.  The  benevolent  spirit  of  the 
proprietor  was  reflected  in  the  laws  and  diffused  through 
the  institutions  of  the  settlement. 

In  1683  the  Mennonites,  under  the  leadership  of  Pasto- 
rius,  settled  Germantown.  In  the  same  year  a  school  was 
established,  where  moderate  fees  only  were  paid.  In  1685 
the  first  printing-press  in  the  Middle  Colonies  was  set  up  in 
Philadelphia  by  William  Bradford.  In  that  same  year,  the 
fourth  since  the  settlement,  there  were  o\'er  seven  thousand 
inhabitants,  the  English  constituting  rather  more  than  half. 
There  was  no  religious  dissatisfaction  or  wrangling.  The 
Swedish  Lutherans,  the  Dutch  Calvinists,  and  the  German 


206  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  viii. 

Baptists  all  flourished,  unmolested,  together  with  the  pre- 
ponderating Quakers.  The  city  of  Philadelphia  grew 
apace.  In  1698  it  was  said  to  contain  many  stately 
houses  of  brick,  together  with  fine  courts  and  squares. 
There  were  two  markets  a  week,  and  there  was  frequent 
intercourse  on  the  water  between  the  principal  market- 
towns,  Chester  and  the  rest.  It  was  a  prosperous  and 
enthusiastic  colony. 

Into  such  surroundings  the  church  was  introduced  not 
earlier  than  1694-95.  The  charter  granted  to  Penn  by  the 
crown  contained  a  clause  that  "  on  the  petition  of  twenty 
persons,  a  preacher  or  preachers  might  be  sent  out  for 
their  instruction  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  should 
be  permitted  to  reside  in  the  province  without  any  deniall 
or  molestation  whatever."  The  exact  date  of  the  intro- 
duction of  Episcopal  services  cannot  be  ascertained.  It 
was,  however,  at  a  time  when  the  dissensions  among  the 
Quakers  were  rife,  owing  to  the  secession  of  George  Keith. 
The  schism  of  Keith  began  in  1691,  and  was  a  protest  es- 
sentially for  the  external  element  of  religion  in  revealed 
truth  and  for  positive  discipline,  in  opposition  to  an  undue 
emphasis  on  mere  inward  spiritual  impressions  and  guid- 
ance. This  movement  shook  the  Society  of  Friends  in  the 
Middle  Colonies,  and  also  in  England,  to  its  foundations.^ 
Its  tendency  was  toward  the  church  idea  of  visible  institu- 
tions as  accompanying  and  embodying  spiritual  realities. 
It  resulted  in  its  author  finding  his  way  into  the  ministry 
of  the  Church  of  England.  In  i  702  he  became  the  first 
traveling  missionary  of  the  S.  P.  G.  in  the  colonies,  and 
prepared  the  way  among  his  followers  for  accepting  the  ap- 
peal of  the  church.  Just  how  the  church  movement  started 
is  not  known.    The  first  church  building,  the  precursor  of 

1  "  American  Church  History,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  233;  "  History  of  tlie  Society 
of  Friends  in  America,"  by  Professor  A.  C.  Thomas  and  R.  H.  Thomas,  M.D. 


FIRST  RECTORS   OF   CHRIST  CHURCH.  207 

Christ  Church,  was  erected  m  1695,  "  a  very  poor  church," 
according  to  Gabriel  Thomas,  who  gives  the  date  of  its 
erection ;  and  a  petition  for  a  clergyman  was  sent  to  the 
Bishop  of  London,  signed  by  several  hundred  persons. 
Before  one  came,  the  Rev.  Richard  Sewall,  of  Maryland, 
held  occasional  services,  to  which  he  was  invited  by 
Mr.  Arrowsmith,  a  schoolmaster  to  Governor  Nicholson, 
who  speaks  of  "  a  full  congregation  and  some  very  desirous 
to  receive  the  sacrament."  There  was  thus  a  nucleus  of 
churchmen  formed  when  the  Rev.  Thomas  Clayton  came, 
in  1698,  as  the  first  regular  incumbent  of  Philadelphia,  by 
whom  appointed  is  not  clear.  His  somewhat  intemperate 
zeal  caused  his  Maryland  brethren  to  remonstrate,  and  he 
withdrew.  He  seems  to  have  had  considerable  sucaess ; 
for  the  Rev.  Edward  Porlock,  of  New  Jersey,  who  officitced 
at  times  after  Clayton's  departure,  wrote  to  the  Archhobisp 
of  Canterbury,  in  i  700,  that  the  church  community  num- 
bered more  than  five  hundred  souls  in  and  about  the  city. 
There  was  naturally  a  strong  feeling  among  the  Society 
of  Friends  against  the  introduction  of  the  church.  It  not 
only  seemed  fitted  to  foment  their  own  dissensions  at  the 
time,  but  they  could  not,  for  all  Penn's  intimacy  with  the 
king,  get  rid  of  their  general  distrust  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical body  from  which  they  had  suffered  persecution 
in  England.  Their  opposition  was,  however,  short-lived. 
In  the  latter  part  of  1701  the  Venerable  Society  sent  out 
its  first  missionary  to  Philadelphia  in  the  person  of  the 
Rev.  Evan  Evans,  who  remained  in  charge  of  Christ 
Church  for  eighteen  years.  He  was  an  admirable  man, 
full  of  zeal  for  his  church,  and  full  of  love  for  souls ;  an  apt 
choice  for  the  time  and  place.  His  earnestness  prompted 
him  to  undertake  great  labors,  not  only  in  Philadelphia,  but 
in  the  surrounding  districts  as  well.  He  introduced  church 
services   at   Chester,   Chichester,   Concord,   Montgomery, 


2o8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  viii. 

Radnor,  Oxford,  and  Perkiomen,  places  ranging  from  ten 
to  twenty-five  miles  distant  from  the  city.  All  these  places 
he  visited  often,  and  some  regularly.  In  Christ  Church  he 
preached  constantly,  and  also  delivered  two  lectures,  one 
a  monthly  lecture  preparatory  to  the  holy  communion, 
the  other  a  weekly  Sunday-evening  lecture  to  a  society  of 
young  men  with  whom  he  read  the  Scriptures  and  sang 
psalms.  He  thus  gathered  about  him  many  earnest  ad- 
herents among  the  young,  so  that  before  the  coming  of 
Keith  and  Talbot,  in  1702,  he  is  said  to  have  baptized 
more  than  five  hundred  adults  and  children  of  Quaker 
families;  and  before  his  visit  to  England,  in  1707,  the 
number  had  increased  to  over  eight  hundred.  He  had 
the  assistance  of  a  deacon.  Rev.  John  Thomas,  who  also 
officiated  at  Trinity  Church,  Oxford. 

The  church's  growth  in  other  places  was  not  inconsid- 
erable. Rev.  Henry  Nichols,  who  ministered  at  Chester, 
computes  that  half  the  inhabitants  of  that  place  in  1 704 
were  churchmen.  Political  dissensions  of  a  local  char- 
acter disturbed  at  times  the  peaceable  relations  of  the 
churches,  but  they  were  neither  very  deep  nor  very  last- 
ing. A  certain  Colonel  Quarry,  formerly  governor  of 
South  Carolina,  but  now  an  admiralty  judge  in  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania,  a  leading  churchman,  was  a  bitter  op- 
ponent of  the  plans  and  policy  of  Penn,  and  spared  no 
pains  to  secure,  through  Lord  Cornbury,  the  overthrow  of 
the  proprietary  government,  and  to  advance  the  interests 
of  the  church  and  crown.  But  Cornbury,  notwithstanding 
his  aggressive  churchmanship  in  New  York,  mindful  of 
Penn's  cordial  relations  with  the  royal  court,  turned  rather 
a  cold  shoulder  to  Quarry's  proposals,  and  was  reported  as 
"  much  averse  to  the  warmth  of  those  who  go  by  the  name 
of  the  church  here."  Penn,  with  not  unnatural  rigor,  de- 
nounced the  turbulent  churchmen,  who  sought  the  over- 


RELATIONS   TO  SWEDISH  CHURCHES.  209 

throw  of  his  colonial  plans,  called  them  "  a  rude  and  un- 
grateful gang,"  and  announced  that  any  who  should  invade 
the  authority  of  his  laws  should  "  feel  the  smart  of  them," 
The  commotion  seems  to  have  subsided  by  1 704. 

When  "  Parson  Evans,"  as  he  was  usually  called,  visited 
England  in  1707,  his  place  was  supplied  by  a  Swedish 
clergyman,  the  Rev.  Andrew  Reedman  ;  an  incident  which, 
like  many  other  instances  of  interchange  and  good  offices, 
shows  the  kindly  relations  of  the  two  churches,  which 
seemed  to  exist  side  by  side,  without  any  suspicion  of  each 
other's  orders,  to  offer  Episcopal  ministrations  to  the  com- 
munity, the  one  in  the  English,  the  other  in  the  Swedish 
language.  Reedman  had  been  sent  over  from  Gothenburg 
in  1696  by  King  Charles  XI.  of  Sweden  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Upsala  to  minister  to  the  Swedish  colonists.  He  died 
before  Evans's  return,  in  the  service  of  Christ  Church,  in 
1 708,  and  was  buried  in  Gloria  Dei  Church  at  Philadelphia. 

Evans,  while  abroad,  made  a  report  of  his  labors  in 
Pennsylvania  to  the  Venerable  Society,  from  which  we 
learn  that  churches  had  been  erected  at  Oxford,  Chester, 
and  New  Castle,^  as  well  as  in  Philadelphia ;  and  the  report 
ended  with  one  of  the  many  fruitless  appeals  for  a  resident 
American  bishop  as  the  most  essential  element  of  church 
progress.  On  his  return  home,  in  1709,  Evans  brought 
with  him  the  set  of  silver  communion -plate  which  Queen 
Anne  had  presented  to  the  church  the  previous  year,  and 
which  is  still  in  use  in  Christ  Church.  The  congregation 
soon  outgrew  the  capacity  of  the  church  to  hold  them,  and 
two  new  aisles  were  added  in  171 1.  New  gifts  of  com- 
munion-plate and  a  font  were  presented  by  Quarry,  and  in 
Philadelphia  the  church  waxed  stronger  and  stronger. 

In  the  country  districts  matters  did  not  progress  so  fa\'or- 

1  New  Castle  was  situated  in  that  part  of  the  territories  of  Pennsylvania 
now  constituting  the  State  of  Delaware. 


2IO  PROrESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chai'.  viii, 

ably.  Many  of  the  clergy  removed  to  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia, where  the  church  was  established  and  the  livings  were 
more  secure.  The  churches  they  left  were  closed,  and 
their  parishes  dwindled  away.  Other  troubles  came  on. 
When  Mr.  Evans  again  visited  England,  in  1715,  Rev. 
Francis  Phillips,  who  for  a  while  ministered  in  his  place, 
gave  such  offense  by  his  unworthy  conduct  that  he  was 
challenged  to  fight  a  duel.  Though  the  governor  sided 
with  him  and  released  him  from  jail,  he  was  promptly  dis- 
missed by  the  vestry,  and  Mr.  Talbot,  of  Burlington,  was 
put  in  his  place  by  the  Bishop  of  London.  The  governor, 
however,  tried  to  silence  Talbot,  and  brought  against  him 
charges  of  sympathy  with  the  Stuarts  and  of  disloyalty  to 
the  government,  which  charges  were  distinctly  repudiated 
by  Talbot.  When  the  old  and  faithful  rector,  Evans  (who 
on  his  return  had  taken  charge  of  the  missions  of  Radnor 
and  Oxford),  finally  retired  into  Maryland,  after  eighteen 
years  of  service.  Sir  William  Keith,  governor,  who  was 
chairman  of  the  vestry,  again  secured  the  services  of  Mr. 
Talbot,  together  with  others,  to  supply  the  vacancy,  thus 
showing  the  respect  felt  for  that  much-reviled  man. 

Evans  had  retired  in  17 18,  unable  to  perform  the  ac- 
cumulated duties  of  the  parish  ;  and  it  was  not  until  Sep- 
tember, 1 7 19,  that  the  Rev.  John  Vicary  was  appointed 
by  the  Bishop  of  London  to  the  rectorship.  Though  in 
feeble  health,  he  served  faithfully  for  five  years,  and  the 
parish  flourished  under  him.  He  was  obliged,  however, 
to  represent  to  the  Venerable  Society  that  the  parishes  in 
Bucks,  Kent,  and  Sussex  counties,  where  churches  and 
parsonages  had  been  erected,  were  in  a  deplorable  and 
declining  condition,  owing  to  the  long  vacancies  occasioned 
by  the  death  of  some  of  the  missionaries  and  the  removal 
of  others.  On  Mr.  Vicary's  death,  in  1723,  the  notorious 
John  Urmston  filled  his  place,  but  he  emptied  the  church 


REV.  RICHARD    IVELTON.  211 

of  the  best  people  by  his  scandalous  conduct,  and,  being 
dismissed,  Mr.  Talbot  was  again  put  in  charge.  Then  it 
was  that,  in  revenge  for  his  displacement,  Urmston  brought 
the  charges  of  disloyalty  and  of  a  nonjuror  consecration 
against  Talbot,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  cause  of  his  dis- 
missal. As  no  appointment  was  made  by  the  Bishop  of 
London  for  more  than  six  months,  the  vestry,  in  July, 
1724,  invited  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Welton,  formerly  incum- 
bent of  St.  Mary's,  Whitechapel,  London,  who  was  visit- 
ing in  the  city,  to  take  charge  of  the  church.  This  he 
did  with  great  acceptance  for  eighteen  months,  when, 
owing  to  rumors  of  his  nonjuring  consecration  as  bishop, 
and  to  reports  of  his  refusal  to  pray  for  the  king  and  royal 
family  by  name,  he  was  commanded  by  the  governor, 
upon  his  allegiance,  to  return  to  Great  Britain  forthwith. 
He  had  undoubtedly  been  consecrated  bishop  by  the  non- 
jurors in  England,  though  it  had  not  then  transpired  in 
Philadelphia,  and  so  the  vestry  gave  him  a  testimonial  of 
his  good  conduct  among  them.  Talbot's  association  with 
him,  though  they  soon  differed  and  broke  off  their  corre- 
spondence, undoubtedly  gave  color,  if  it  did  not  give  rise, 
to  Urmston's  charge  against  him.  Welton  died  at  Lisbon, 
on  his  way  home ;  and  in  September  of  the  same  year 
the  Rev.  Archibald  Cummings  was  appointed  by  the  new 
Bishop  of  London,  Gibson,  to  the  cure.  He  served,  dur- 
ing a  period  of  great  prosperity  for  the  parish,  for  fifteen 
years,  until  he  died,  in  1741. 

The  cause  of  the  church  outside  the  city  continued  to 
languish  by  reason  of  the  destitution  of  ministers.  The 
death  of  a  missionary  was  frequently  followed  by  the  loss 
of  a  congregation  to  the  church.  Sir  William  Keith  re- 
ported to  the  Bishop  of  London,  about  the  time  of  Welton's 
coming,  that  there  were  "  twelve  or  thirteen  little  edifices, 
called  '  churches '  or  '  chapels,'  erected  by  voluntary  con- 


212  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap,  viii. 

tributions,  at  times  supplied  by  one  or  other  of  the  poor 
missionaries  sent  from  the  society  to  New  Castle,  Chester, 
Oxford,  and  Sussex ;  whose  character  for  life  and  conver- 
sation and  a  diligent  application  to  their  duty  is,  I  believe, 
generally  approved  of,  and  I  cannot  say  but  their  behavior 
to  myself  and  the  magistracy  has  been  all  along  very 
decent  and  respectful."  This  was  a  set-off  to  his  com- 
plaints against  Christ  Church,  whose  members  had  re- 
moved him  from  the  vestry  on  the  ground  of  his  "  taking 
upon  him  to  overrule  them,  and  entirely  depriving  them 
of  the  freedom  justly  due."  Christ  Church,  in  the  person 
of  Peter  Evans,  repelled  the  governor's  insinuation  of  dis- 
loyalty as  "  a  piece  of  injustice,"  and  under  the  ministry 
of  Mr.  Cummings  went  on  its  way  rejoicing. 

Seven  months  after  Cumming's  arrival  on  April  2^,  i  J2J, 
the  corner-stone  of  the  present  interesting  edifice  was  laid 
by  Hon.  Patrick  Gordon,  the  governor  of  the  province  of 
Pennsylvania ;  the  mayor  of  the  city,  the  rector,  and  others 
assisting.  The  walls  of  the  new  building  rose  around 
those  of  the  old,  in  which  the  congregation  still  worshiped, 
and  the  edifice  was  completed  in  its  present  form  in  1 744. 
It  was  a  great  achievement  for  its  day,  and  it  is  still  an  ad- 
mirable specimen  of  colonial  architecture.  Together  with 
the  parish  it  accommodates,  it  stood  in  the  same  relative 
position  to  the  colonial  church  in  Pennsylvania  as  Trinity 
Church  in  New  York  stood  to  the  church  of  that  province. 
Although  it  anticipates  the  general  course  of  this  history, 
it  is  appropriate  to  recall  here  some  of  the  striking  events 
which  are  associated  with  it,  and  make  it,  even  more  than 
Trinity  Church,  New  York,  an  object  of  interest  to  all 
churchmen,  and  of  regard  to  every  patriotic  American. 
It  was  in  this  edifice,  now  standing,  that  President  Wash- 
ington was  an  habitual  worshiper  for  six  years,  during  his 
term  of  office.     Here  the  Continental  Congress  came  in  a 


CHRIST   CHURCH,   PHILADELPHIA.  213 

body  from  the  State-house  to  attend  the  service  of  fasting 
and  prayer  set  apart  by  themselves,  July  20,  1775,  on 
which  occasion  Rev.  Jacob  Duchc,  who  had  opened  the 
first  Continental  Congress  by  prayer,  September  4,  1774, 
preached  the  sermon  from  Psalm  Ixxx.  The  first  Gen- 
eral Convention,  in  which  the  original  constitution  of  the 
church  was  framed,  was  held  liere  September  2  7,  1 785  ;  also 
the  second,  June,  i  786  ;  also  that  of  1 789,  when,  for  the  first 
time,  the  whole  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  was  repre- 
sented by  all  its  bishops,  including  Samuel  Seabury  of  the 
Scottish  succession,  and  by  clerical  deputies  from  New 
England,  including  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  and 
Connecticut.  In  this  Convention  the  Prayer-book  was 
ratified,  and  the  constitution  was  extended  over  all  the 
dioceses,  making  the  church  one.  In  this  church  Dr. 
William  White  was  elected  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  by  the 
Diocesan  Convention,  September  14,  1786.  He  had  been 
baptized  in  the  church  in  infancy,  he  had  served  seven 
years  as  assistant  in  the  parish,  and,  having  been  elected 
rector  in  1779,  he  held  that  position,  as  priest  and  bishop, 
until  his  death,  in  1836,  a  period  of  fifty-seven  years. 1 

Three  distinguished  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence were  pewholders  in  Christ  Church.  Of  these, 
the  most  distinguished,  Benjamin  Franklin,  served  several 
years  as  vestryman.  Francis  Hopkinson  was  rector's  war- 
den, and  gave  his  services  as  organist  for  a  time.  Robert 
Morris,  the  great  financier  of  the  Revolution,  and  brother- 
in-law  of  Bishop  White,  constantly  attended  service  here. 

A  month  before  the  day  of  humiliation  and  prayer,  at  a 
service  which  the  Continental  Congress  attended  in  a  body, 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  one  of  the  foremost  clergymen  of 
his  day,  and  one  of  the  most  influential  men  in  the  forma- 

^  Perry,  "  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Cliurcli,"  vol.  i.,  p.  605 
(article  "  Christ  Church,"  by  Bishop  Davies). 


2  14  PROTESTAKT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH.     [Chap.  viii. 

tion  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church,  preached  here  a 
discourse  on  "  The  Present  Situation  of  American  Afifairs," 
which  created  a  great  sensation  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  and  is  said  to  have  given  a  clearer  understand- 
ing of  the  position  of  our  fathers  than  any  other  printed 
document  of  the  time.  Here  Bishop  White  held  most  of 
his  ordinations ;  and  eleven  bishops  have  been  consecrated 
within  its  walls. 

The  church  possesses  a  library  of  considerable  antiqua- 
rian interest,  which  began  to  be  formed  in  1695,  and  was 
afterward  enriched  by  Queen  Anne,  and  especially  by 
Rev.  L.  C.  Spergell  in  1728.  By  subsequent  gifts  it  has 
reached  the  number  of  twelve  hundred  volumes.  The 
communion-plate  is  of  much  historic  interest  from  the 
distinguished  donors  of  it.  On  some  of  it  is  found  the 
inscription,  "  Anna  Regina  in  usum  Ecclesia  Anglicanae 
apud  Philadelphinum,  A.D.  1708." 

To  return  now  to  the  history  of  the  parish,  which  con- 
stituted the  chief  part  of  the  colonial  church  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. It  was  during  Mr.  Cummings's  rectorship  that 
Whitefield  thrice  visited  Philadelphia,  and  preached  fre- 
quently in  Christ  Church,  exciting  so  great  an  interest  here, 
as  elsewhere,  as  to  compel  a  removal  to  the  fields  on  the 
occasion  of  his  farewell  discourse  ;  the  church  being  unable 
to  contain  a  fourth  of  the  people  who  flocked  to  hear  him. 
On  his  third  visit  to  the  city  he  was  not  invited  to  Christ 
Church,  his  course  having  given  rise  to  a  suspicion  that  he 
meant  not  merely  to  awaken  and  purify  the  church,  but 
to  rend  it  asunder  or  establish  a  rival  institution.  This 
conservative  course  increased  the  growth  of  the  church 
by  accessions  from  those  dissenters  who  were  offended  by 
the  too  enthusiastic  methods  of  the  New  Lights. 

Mr.  Cummings  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Robert 
Jenny,  LL.D  ,  in  1 742,  and  this  new  rectorship  lasted  twenty 


ST.  PETER'S   CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA.  215 

years.  It  was  a  period  of  great  prosperity,  during  which 
St.  Peter's  Church  was  built  as  an  enlargement  of  the 
parish,  being  proposed  in  1754,  begun  in  1758,  and 
finished  and  opened  for  worship  in  1761.  It  formed  an 
integral  portion  of  Christ  Church  parish  until  1832,  when 
it  was  set  off  by  itself,  and  was,  until  that  time,  ministered 
to  by  the  rector  and  assistant  clergy  of  the  mother- church. 
Its  first  rector,  wlien  it  became  a  distinct  parish,  was  the 
Rev.  Dr.  William  H.  De  Lancey,  previously  Provost  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  afterward  first  Bishop 
of  the  new  diocese  of  Western  New  York,  to  which  he 
was  elected  in  1839.  Its  second  rector  was  Dr.  W.  H. 
Odenheimer,  who  became  Bishop  of  New  Jersey  in  1859. 
Its  fourth  rector.  Dr.  Thomas  F.  Davies,  became  Bishop 
of  Michigan  in  1889. 

With  the  exception  of  Independence  Hall,  St.  Peter's 
Church  is  the  only  building  of  the  last  century  in  Phila- 
delphia which  retains  all  its  original  features,  interior  as 
well  as  exterior.  It  was  from  the  pulpit  of  St.  Peter's 
that  Bishop  White  preached  his  first  sermon  on  his  re- 
turn from  England  after  his  consecration,  and  there  also  he 
preached  his  last  sermon  three  weeks  before  his  death. 

During  Dr.  Jenny's  rectorship  of  Christ  Church,  the 
College  and  Academy  of  Philadelphia,  since  developed 
into  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  was  founded  and 
opened  in  1 749,  some  five  years  before  the  opening  of 
King's  College,  New  York.  Benjamin  Franklin,  a  vestry- 
man of  Christ  Church,  was  the  chief  mover  in  the  matter, 
and  had  received  Bishop  Berkeley's  suggestions  regarding 
it.  Three  fourths  of  the  trustees  were  members  of  the 
Church  of  England  ;  and  they,  with  Franklin,  were  strongly 
desirous  of  securing  Dr.  Johnson,  of  Stratford,  Conn.,  as 
rector  of  the  institution.  Failing  in  this,' Mr.  David  Mar- 
tin, M.A.,  professor  of  Greek  and   Latin,  acted  as  rector 


2l6  rR0rES7\li\T  EriSCOrAL    CHURCH.      [CiiAP.  VIII. 

for  three  years,  when  he  died.  It  wa.s  in  1754,  the  year 
that  Dr.  Johnson  became  president  of  King's  College,  New 
York,  that  Rev.  William  Smith  was  "  inducted  Provost  of 
the  Academy  and  College  of  Philadelphia,  and  Professor 
of  Natural  History."  He  prepared  a  "  Plan  of  Education," 
which  has  formed  the  basis  of  our  American  college 
system.  Though  the  college  was  not  exclusively  a  church 
institution,  which  Dr.  Jenny  did  not  approve,  yet  two 
thirds  of  the  trustees  were  churchmen,  and  the  provost 
soon  became  the  most  prominent  figure  in  the  Convention 
of  clergy,  and  acquired  a  controlling  influence  in  the  man- 
agement of  church  affairs. 

Dr.  Jenny  was  becoming  old  and  infirm  ;  but  he  had  the 
invaluable  services  of  two  assistant  ministers,  whose  terms 
of  service  overlapped  each  other,  but  were  not  cotermi- 
nous. The  Rev.  William  Sturgeon,  a  student  of  Yale 
College,  who  became  assistant  in  1747,. worked  with  in- 
defatigable zeal  for  nineteen  years,  not  only  for  the  parish, 
but  also  especially  for  the  negroes  of  the  city.  A  large 
measure  of  the  success  of  the  church  in  maintaining  itself 
and  enlarging  its  work  is  due  to  him.  The  Rev.  Jacob 
Duche  was  added  to  the  staff  of  clergy  in  i  759,  and  served 
through  the  terms  of  both  Dr.  Jenny  and  his  successor, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Peters,  and  with  such  success  and 
ability  that  on  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Peters,  in  1775,  he 
succeeded  him  as  rector  of  the  united  churches. 

It  was  during  the  incumbency  of  Dr.  Peters  that  the 
united  parishes  received  from  Thomas  and  Richard  Penn, 
the  proprietaries  of  the  province,  a  charter  constituting  the 
rector,  churchwardens,  and  vestrymen  of  Christ  Church 
and  St.  Peter's  "  a  body  politick  and  corporate."  The 
charter,  "signed  by  the  Hon.  John  Penn,  Esq.,  Lt.-Gov- 
ernor,  and  under  the  great  seal "  of  the  province,  was 
formally  received  and  accepted  by  the  vestry  June  28, 


DA'S.  DUCIlfi  AND    IVHITE  AS  RECTORS.  217 

1765.  The  rectorship  of  Dr.  Duche  was  short,  by  reason 
of  the  poHtical  troubles  of  the  time.  As  we  liave  seen,  he 
opened  the  first  Continental  Congress  with  prayer,  and 
preached  before  it  on  the  day  of  national  humiliation  and 
fasting  in  Christ  Church.  After  the  vestry,  at  the  time 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  requested  the  clergy 
to  omit  the  prayers  for  the  king,  Dr.  Duche  requested 
leave  to  return  to  England  to  see  and  consult  with  the 
Bishop  of  London,  and  remove  objections  he  might  have 
to  his  conduct.  His  opinions  suffered  a  decided  change, 
at  least  in  relation  to  the  success  of  the  Revolution,  and 
he  wrote  a  letter  to  Washington  urging  a  cessation  of 
hostilities.  He  never  resumed  his  rectorship.  He  re- 
mained abroad  until  after  Bishop  White's  consecration 
at  Lambeth,  which  he  attended.  When  he  returned  to 
America  he  continued  to  live  in  closest  friendship  with  his 
former  co-laborers,  though  he  never  assumed  any  charge. 
His  successor  in  the  rectorship  was  the  venerable  Wil- 
liam White,  father  of  the  American  church,  who,  together 
with  Rev.  Thomas  Coombe,  had  been  elected  assistant 
minister  to  Dr.  Peters  in  1772.  Coombe  resigned  in 
1777-78,  being  unable,  after  long  reflection,  to  conscien- 
tiously renounce  allegiance  to  the  king.  White  had  as 
clear  a  conviction  of  his  duty  to  the  Republic,  and  was  as 
stanch  in  his  patriotism  as  he  was  mild  in  his  treatment  of 
those  who  differed  with  him.  He  was  unanimously  elected 
rector  in  1779,  when  Duche  failed  to  return;  and  his 
acceptance  of  the  position  is  truly  characteristic  of  him. 
He  asked  that  his  letter  of  acceptance  be  put  on  record, 
in  which  he  assured  the  vestry  that  "  if  ever,  at  their  desire 
and  that  of  the  members  of  the  churches  in  general,  and 
with  the  permission  of  the  civil  autliority,  their  former 
rector  should  return,  he  should  esteem  it  his  duty,  and  it 
would  be  his  pleasure,  to  resign  into  his  hands  the  charge 


2l8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chai'.  viii. 

which  he  had  now  received."  ^  He  retained  his  rectorship 
all  through  his  episcopate,  and  before  his  consecration  was 
made  chaplain  to  Congress  during  the  war,  and  was  again 
appointed  by  the  Senate  under  the  Federal  Constitution 
as  long  as  Philadelphia  was  the  seat  of  government.  Of 
his  career  we  shall  treat  later  on,  for  the  history  of  the 
formation  of  the  national  church  is  largely  his  own.  We 
turn  now  to  other  parts  of  Pennsylvania  to  see  how  the 
church  fared  there. 

In  1760  the  first  convocation  of  the  clergy  was  held  in 
Philadelphia.  There  were  ten  members  present,  and  four 
others  were  unable  to  attend,  so  that  there  were  fourteen 
in  all.^  The  accounts  of  the  missions  in  Pennsylvania  and 
Delaware  stated,  among  other  items,  that  in  the  Dover 
mission  (coterminous  with  Kent  County)  there  were  three 
churches,  under  the  care  of  Rev.  Charles  Inglis,  who  after- 
ward became  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  and 
that  these  churches  were  crowded  and  the  communicants 
on  the  increase.  At  New  Castle  the  church  was  "  thin 
of  people,"  but  at  Chester  there  was  improvement;  and 
at  Oxford  the  church  was  "  in  a  very  flourishing  way." 
Radnor  was  faithfully  supplied.  There  was  a  small  church 
at  Lancaster,  another  at  Bangor,  a  third  at  Pequa,  these 
last  two  of  stone.  There  were  missions  at  Huntingdon, 
York,  and  Carlisle.  Reading  desired  a  missionary,  and 
Easton  was  in  similar  need.  Yet  the  church,  for  all  the 
efforts  made,  did  not  include  one  fiftieth  of  the  population  ; 
and  in  1 766  Dr.  Peters,  who  was  commissary,  wrote  that 
about  twenty  missions  were  vacant  A  third  church,  St. 
Paul's,  had  been  added   to  the   number  in  Philadelphia ; 

1  Anderson,  "  History  of  the  Colonial  Church,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  280. 

-  The  clergy  in  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  as  distinct  from  Delaware, 
never  exceeded  ten  in  number,  four  being  parochial  clergymen  in  Philadel- 
phia and  six  missionaries  of  the  S.  P.  G.  (See  "  Memoirs  of  the  Church," 
Bishop  White,  p.  14,  note.) 


^7:  PAUL'S  CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA.  219 

but  it  was  the  offspring  of  a  schism  from  the  mother- 
church  in  the  following  of  the  Rev.  William  MacClenna- 
chan,  whom  some  desired  for  an  assistant  to  Dr.  Jenny, 
but  whom  the  Bishop  of  London  would  not  license  for  the 
post.  St.  Paul's  was  thus  hardly  an  element  of  strength 
in  the  church  life  of  the  city.  But  stir  and  various 
signs  of  life  appeared.  When  Whitefield  came  once  more 
to  the  city,  in  1763,  he  preached  several  times  in  the  two 
churches,  "  without  any  of  his  usual  censures  of  the  clergy 
and  with  a  greater  moderation  of  sentiment."  The  Col- 
lege and  Academy  of  Philadelphia  was  training  able  men 
for  the  ministry,  with  William  White  among  them.  The 
Society  for  the  Relief  of  the  Widows  and  Orphans  of  the 
Clergy  was  instituted,  an  effort  for  whose  resuscitation 
after  the  Revolution  started  the  movement  for  the  con- 
solidation of  the  church. 

All  along  there  had  been  frequent  exchanges  of  pulpits 
and  parishes  by  the  clergy  of  the  churches  of  England  and 
Sweden;  and  when  the  Swedish  language  fell  into  disuse, 
the  Swedish  churches,  as  those  of  Trinity  Church,  Wil- 
mington, Del.,  and  what  is  now  Gloria  Dei  Church  of 
Philadelphia,  became  parts  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church. 

Among  the  names  of  the  clergy  who  wrought  with 
great  faithfulness  for  the  church  in  Pennsylvania,  not  only 
among  the  white  settlers,  but  also  for  the  negroes  and 
Indians,  and  which  should  be  ever  held  in  grateful  remem- 
brance, are  those  of  Crawford  of  Kent  County,  Beckett  of 
Sussex,  Neill  of  Oxford,  Ross  of  Chester,  and  Barton  of 
York  and  Cumberland.  This  last  missionary  reported  in 
1763-64:  "The  German  Lutherans  have  frequently  in 
their  Coetus  proposed  a  union  with  the  Church  of  P^ng- 
land  ;"  and  "  a  large  and  respectable  congregation  of  Dutch 
Calvinists  in  Philadelphia  have  already  drawn  up  a  consti- 


220  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  viii. 

tiition  by  which  they  obhge  themselves  to  conform  to  the 
canons  and  constitutions  of  the  National  Church,  and  to 
use  her  Liturgy  and  forms,  and  none  else,  provided  they 
be  approved  of  and  received  at  Home,  and  that  my  Lord 
Bishop  will  grant  ordination  to  such  gentlemen  as  they 
shall  present  to  him."  It  is  impossible,  in  view  of  such 
testimony  and  of  the  gradual  assimilation  of  the  Swedish 
Churches,  which  the  Venerable  Society  aided,  not  to  lament 
the  torpor  and  blindness  which  denied  the  episcopate  to 
America  in  her  colonial  period. 

To  a  great  extent,  all  that  might  have  been  achieved 
and  all  that  had  been  gained  was  wiped  out  by  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  during  which,  at  one  time,  Rev.  William 
White  was  the  only  Episcopal  clergyman  in  the  State. 
Yet  here  the  Venerable  Society  had  assisted  in  maintain- 
ing at  various  times  forty-seven  missionaries  and  planting 
twenty-four  central  stations. 

But  little  has  appeared  in  this  narrative  in  regard  to 
Delaware  as  related  to  the  Episcopal  Church  of  the  col- 
onies, because  it  formed  a  part  of  the  larger  province,  and 
was  called  the  "Territories  of  Pennsylvania "  or  "the 
three  lower  counties  on  the  Delaware."  Its  church  history 
is  thus  mingled  with  that  of  Pennsylvania.  In  1 67  7  the  noted 
Rev.  John  Yeo  came  from  Maryland  to  New  Castle,  and, 
on  being  approved  by  the  governor,  was  appointed  minis- 
ter by  the  court.  The  Swedes  hitherto  had  possessed  the 
land,  having  begun  to  build  churches  as  early  as  1638, 
when  a  log  chapel  was  erected  just  to  the  east  of  the 
present  Old  Swedes'  Trinity  Church  in  Wilmington.  The 
corner-stone  of  the  present  edifice,  which  has  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  was  laid  May  28,  1698. 
It  is  the  second  oldest  church  edifice  in  the  country  and 
is  the  oldest  church  in  which  continuous  religious  services 
have  been  conducted  from  its  foundation  to  the  present 


OLD   SWEDES'    GIIURCII,    WILMINGTON.  221 

time.  It  is  still  sacredly  kept  in  repair,  and  to-day  is  the 
home  of  a  regular  congregation.  About  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  much  excellent  missionary  work  was 
done  here  by  Ross  and  Beckett,  and  what  the  Swedes  sowed 
was  reaped  by  the  Episcopalians  when,  by  the  gradual  dis- 
use of  the  Swedish  language,  the  Swedish  churches  and 
congregations  became  merged  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  COLONIAL  CHURCH  IN  THE  CAROLINAS. 

The  name  Carolina  appears  to  have  been  first  applied 
to  the  region  which  it  designates,  in  honor  of  Charles  IX. 
of  France,  by  the  French  Huguenots,  who  settled  in 
Florida  as  early  as  1562.  The  name,  however,  was  form- 
ally given  to  the  territory  by  Charles  I.  of  England,  in 
honor  of  himself,  when  in  1629  he  made  a  grant  of  it  to 
Sir  Robert  Meath.  No  settlement  was  made  under  this 
grant;  and  in  1663  Charles  II.  apportioned  the  region  to 
eight  lord  proprietors,  including  among  them  the  Earl  of 
Clarendon,  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  and  Lord  Ashley 
Cooper,  afterward  Earl  of  Shaftesbury.  In  1665  he  gave 
another  charter,  greatly  enlarging  the  territory,  and  two 
settlements,  the  Albemarle  and  the  Clarendon,  were  started. 
Before  the  first  charter,  in  1663,  a  small  company  of  Dis- 
senters had  migrated  from  Virginia  to  the  Chowan  River, 
which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Albemarle  settlement,  to 
which  a  governor,  William  Drummond,  was  appointed  by 
Sir  William  Berkeley,  governor  of  Virginia.  Some  Eng- 
lish colonists  in  1665  came  over  from  the  Barbadoes  to  the 
Cape  Fear  River  and  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Clarendon, 
or  southern,  settlement ;  and  their  leader,  John  Yeamans, 
was  appointed  the  governor.  Freedom  of  religion  was 
guaranteed  in  these  charters  to  all  who  did  not  disturb  the 
peace ;  and  the  proprietors  were  at  pains  to  make  liberal 
offers  to  New  Englanders  and  any  others  who  might 
choose  to  migrate  to  their  possessions. 

222 


THE   CONSTITUTION  OF  JOHN  LOCKE. 


223 


It  was  in  1669  that  the  proprietors  adopted  "The 
Fundamental  Constitution  of  CaroHna,"  framed  by  the 
philosopher  John  Locke  in  conjunction  with  the  proprietor 
Lord  Shaftesbury,  his  intimate  friend.  It  proved  to  be  an 
impracticable  system  of  government,  with  whose  general 
features,  as  they  were  never  carried  out,  this  history  is 
not  concerned.  Its  religious  features  are  interesting,  as  it 
contained,  contrary  to  Locke's  wishes,  a  provision  for  the 
establishment  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  building  of 
churches,  and  the  maintenance,  through  acts  of  the  Par- 
liament, of  its  ministry.  No  one  was  to  be  molested  or 
coerced  on  account  of  his  religious  opinions.  Any  seven 
persons  might  organize  themselves  into  a  church  who 
should  profess  their  belief  in  God  and  their  obligations  to 
worship  him,  and  adopt  a  form  of  oath  or  affirmation  to 
be  used  by  witnesses  in  the  courts.  Thus,  either  by  the 
charters  of  Charles  II.  or  the  constitution  of  Locke,  the 
Church  of  England  was  "by  law  established." 

The  Clarendon  Colony  did  not  flourish ;  and  after  its 
disappearance  there  were  two  colonies,  Albemarle  on  the 
north  and  the  Ashley  River  Colony  on  the  south,  re- 
spectively North  and  South  Carolina.  The  settlers  at 
Albemarle  were  reinforced  by  emigrants  from  New  Eng- 
land who  were  not  churchmen  ;  and  the  Quakers  were  in 
sufficient  force,  though  not  numerous,  by  1672  to  be  vis- 
ited by  George  Fox.  A  large  number  of  fugitives  from 
Virginia,  who  fled  to  escape  punishment  on  the  suppres- 
sion of  Bacon's  rebellion,  settled  in  Albemarle ;  and  under 
Governors  Stevens  and  Sothel  the  state  of  this  mixed 
society  was  anarchical,  owing  to  the  unwise  interference 
of  the  proprietors. 

Amid  the  variety  of  religious  beliefs  and  sects  there 
was  no  effort  made  by  those  who  were  of  the  Church  of 
England  to  tax  themselves  for  her  support.     The  settlers 


224  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHCRCII.        [Chap.  ix. 

generally  were  men  of  small  means,  and,  while  of  great 
courage  and  energy,  were  indiflferent  to  the  outward 
observances  of  religion.  Until  the  beginning  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  when  the  Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.)  began 
to  take  notice  of  it,  there  was  no  stir  of  church  life  in  the 
colony. 

The  southern  settlement,  on  the  Ashley  River,  began  in 
1670;  and  two  years  after,  Charleston,  named  in  honor  of 
the  king,  was  made  the  permanent  site.  The  religious 
character  of  the  settlers  was  very  varied.  Dutch  emigrants 
arrived  early  from  New  York.  Negro  slaves  were  im- 
ported in  1 67 1.  English  colonists  came  over,  and  a 
company  of  Scotch  Irish  in  1683.  A  large  number  of 
French  Huguenots,  fugitives  from  the  persecution  result- 
ing from  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  emigrated 
to  the  Cooper  River  in  1685.  This  Huguenot  addition 
had  subsequently  a  marked  effect  upon  the  church,  and 
lived  with  it  in  great  amity ;  but  in  its  early  stages  it 
seemed  to  add  a  new  element  to  the  religious  chaos.  It 
was  the  object  at  first  of  a  ve'xatious  and  oppressive  jeal- 
ousy ;  and  its  members  made  complaints  to  the  proprietors 
that  they  were  denied  the  rights  of  subjects  and  were 
treated  as  aliens.  The  authorities  were  ordered  to  remedy 
these  complaints  as  early  as  1693  !  but  it  was  only  in  1699 
that  an  act  was  passed  by  the  Assembly  securing  to  the 
Huguenots  the  immunities  and  privileges  they  desired. 

It  was  almost  twenty  years  from  the  date  of  the  first 
Carolina  charter  before  any  clergyman  appeared  in  the 
province.  There  was  no  visible  token  that  it  was  a  Chris- 
tian country.  In  1680-81,  however,  a  piece  of  land  was 
granted  in  Charleston  by  private  parties,  Reginald  Jackson 
and  Millicent  his  wife,  as  a  site  for  the  erection  of  a  build- 
ing in  which  the  services  of  the  Church  of  England  were 
to  be  celebrated  by  Atkin  Williamson,  cleric;  and  in  the 


ST.  PHILIP'S   CHURCH,   CHARLESTON.  225 

following  year  a  church  of  black  cypress  upon  a  brick 
foundation,  large  and  stately,  was  built,  and  was  called 
by  the  name  of  St.  Philip.  This  first  church  of  St.  Philip 
stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  St.  Michael's.  Williamson 
was  succeeded  by  Rev.  Samuel  Marshall  in  1696,  and  was 
later  on  pensioned  by  the  Provincial  Assembly,  who  gave 
him  an  annuity  of  thirty  pounds. 

Marshall  proved  an  admirable  man.  He  had  been  rec- 
ommended by  Bishop  Compton,  to  whom  Commissary 
Bray  had  introduced  him,  and  by  Burkitt,  the  New  Testa- 
ment commentator;  and  he  did  credit  to  their  nomina- 
tion. The  Assembly,  recognizing  his  value  and  desiring 
to  perpetuate  his  services,  passed  an  act  in  1698  for 
the  maintenance  of  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  Charleston.  This  was  the  first-fruits  of  the  Act  of 
Establishment  granted  thirty-five  years  before  by  the 
king's  charter,  and  twenty-eight  years  after  Locke's  con- 
stitution had  been  published.  The  act  appropriated  to 
Marshall  and  his  successors  forever  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  per  annum,  and  directed  that  "  a  negro  man 
and  woman  and  four  cows  and  calves  be  purchased  for  his 
use,  and  paid  out  of  the  public  treasury."  It  ended  by 
declaring  that  Marshall,  "  by  his  devout  and  exemplary 
life  and  good  doctrine,  had  proved  himself  worthy  of  the 
high  report  made  of  him  by  the  Bishop  of  London."  His 
ministry  was  too  short  for  the  good  of  the  church.  He 
died  in  three  years ;  and,  before  Bishop  Compton  could 
reply  to  the  request  of  the  governor  and  council  to  send 
them  another  minister  like  him,  a  clergyman,  Edward 
Marston,  was  elected  rector  of  St.  Philip's  by  "  about  thirty 
of  the  chiefest  inhabitants."  He  proved  to  be  an  unfor- 
tunate choice,  and  was  ejected,  after  a  few  years  of  service, 
in  1705,  by  the  governor  and  chief- justice.  When  the 
Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.)  afterward  objected  to  the  law 


226  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  ix. 

of  1 704,  which  gave  too  much  control  to  the  laity  over  the 
clergyman,  the  governor  and  council  explained  that  the 
clause  in  the  act  was  made  "  to  get  rid  of  the  incendiary 
and  pest  of  the  church,  Mr.  Marston,"  and  that,  had  the 
society  known  the  facts  of  the  case,  it  would  not  have 
blamed  them  "  for  taking  that  or  any  other  way  to  get  rid 
of  him."  After  his  ejectment  he  continued  to  prove  a 
veritable  thorn  in  the  flesh  to  the  church,  who  found  it 
impossible  to  silence  or  suppress  one  so  turbulent  and  de- 
termined. The  church  was  only  relieved  of  his  irritating 
presence  by  his  return  to  England  in  1712. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Thomas,  who  had  come  out  in  1702 
as  the  first  missionary  of  the  Venerable  Society,  was  ap- 
pointed in  Marston's  place.  He  was  a  saintly  man,  who 
had  proved  his  worth  and  fidelity  by  his  work  as  mission- 
ary during  the  three  previous  years.  Having  been  designed 
for  a  mission  to  the  Indians,  he  found  it  impossible,  by 
reason  of  their  turbulent  condition,  to  gain  a  hearing 
among  them ;  so  he  settled  at  Goose  Creek  in  the  Cooper 
River  district,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  almost  heathen 
inhabitants,  including  many  negro  and  Indian  slaves.  In 
three  years  he  wrought  a  visible  abatement  of  immorality 
and  profaneness,  and  was  able  to  secure  a  general  observ- 
ance of  the  Lord's  day,  and  introduce  both  the  institutions 
and  sacraments  of  the  church  and  private  worship  in  the 
home.  On  returning  to  England,  in  1705,  the  governor 
and  Parliament  showed  their  confidence  and  esteem  by 
empowering  him  to  choose  five  ministers  of  the  Church  of 
England,  such  as  he  should  think  fit,  to  officiate  in  the 
vacant  parishes  laid  out  by  the  government.  During  this 
visit  he  was  instrumental  in  accomplishing  the  abrogation 
of  the  objectionable  law  of  i  704,  before  alluded  to,  which 
placed  in  the  hands  of  certain  lay  commissioners  the  power 
of  removing  the  clergy.     The  Venerable  Society,  whose 


MISSIONARIES    THOMAS  AND  IE  JEAN.  227 

attention  he  called  to.it,  referred  the  matter  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  London,  and 
agreed  to  stop  sending  any  ministers  into  the  colony  until 
satisfied  that  the  obnoxious  law  was  or  would  be  rescinded. 
The  House  of  Lo  ds,  also,  in  response  to  a  petition  pre- 
sented in  behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  Carolina  by  a 
Charleston  merchant,  Joseph  Boone,  declared  the  law  con- 
trary to  the  colonial  charter.  The  queen  also  pronounced 
the  oflfensive  acts  null  and  void,  and  they  were  repealed 
by  the  General  Assembly  in  i  706. 

Mr.  Thomas  returned  to  Carolina  in  i  706  and  resumed 
his  work,  but  died  the  same  year,  to  the  great  loss  of  the 
church.  The  governor  and  council  petitioned  the  society 
for  more  such  men,  and  promised  to  protect  and  honor 
them  and  to  enlarge  their  salaries.  So  great  an  impression 
can  one  good  man  make.  Dr.  Le  Jean,  who  was  appointed 
the  successor  of  Thomas  at  Goose  Creek,  labored  in  his 
spirit  of  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  for  eleven  years,  until 
his  death.  He  ministered  diligently  to  the  negroes  amid 
much  opposition,  giving  them  systematic  religious  instruc- 
tion, and  persuadinty  their  reluctant  masters  to  allow  him 
to  administer  the  sacrament  to  them.  There  were  excep- 
tional masters  and  mistresses  who  zealously  seconded  the 
efforts  of  Le  Jean  to  evangelize  their  servants ;  but  the 
owners  generally  were  at  first  opposed  to  his  instruction, 
under  a  vague  apprehension  that  the  christianizing  of  the 
negro  by  baptism  would  make  him  a  free  man.  Wher- 
ever the  instruction  of  the  blacks  was  permitted,  and 
especially  where  it  was  seconded  by  their  owners,  it  was 
largely  successful,  so  that  in  some  congregations  they 
furnished  one  half  of  the  communicants. 

The  free  Indians  were  also  the  objects  of  Le  Jean's  care ; 
and  in  1713  a  Yammonsee  prince  was  brought  by  the 
Rev.  G.  Johnston,  of  Charleston,  to  England  to  be  edur. 


228  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ix. 

cated  in  the  Christian  religion.  He  was  welcomed  by  the 
king  and  baptized  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  returned 
to  his  tribe  two  years  later  a  Christian  man.  The  promise 
of  much  good  to  the  Indians  from  such  conversions  was 
rudely  dispelled  by  an  insurrection  in  1715,  in  which 
many  tribes  from  Fort  St.  Augustine  to  Cape  Fear 
joined,  during  which  the  missionaries  were  impoverished 
and  many  colonists  massacred.  Efforts  for  their  conver- 
sion and  civilization  were  continued.  When  Le  Jean  died, 
in  1 71  7,  the  mission  was  left  seven  years  without  a  per- 
manent minister,  until  Richard  Ludlum  effectually  renewed 
the  interrupted  work,  leaving  at  his  death,  five  years  later, 
two  thousand  pounds  for  the  instruction  of  the  poor  chil- 
dren of  his  parish. 

It  was  about  this  time,  in  1 729,  that  the  interests  of 
most  of  the  proprietors  of  Carolina  were  purchased  by  act 
of  Parliament  and  vested  in  the  crown.  Henceforth  the 
colony  was  divided  into  two  distinct  provinces,  called 
North  and  South  Carolina,  each  being  ruled  by  a  governor 
and  council  of  the  king's  appointment.  Before  this  divi- 
sion thirty -eight  clergy  had  been  settled  in  the  various 
parishes  of  the  common  colony;  and  between  that  time, 
and  the  Declaration  of  Independence  ninety-two  more 
came  out  to  South  Carolina  alone.  Many  other  parishes, 
about  twenty  in  all,  had  been  formed  in  the  province  soon 
after  that  established  by  Mr.  Thomas  at  Goose  Creek, 
among  which  were  St.  John's  in  Berkeley ;  Christ  Church, 
near  Craven  County ;  St.  Thomas's  and  St.  Denis's  on 
the  Cooper  River ;  and  many  others  in  various  parts  of  the 
present  State.  Some  of  the  clergy  who  came  out  to  min- 
ister to  these  parishes  felt  the  climate  severely,  and  died 
or  returned  to  England.  A  large  majority,  however, 
remained,  and  were,  on  the  whole,  steady  and  consistent 
in  the  discharge  of  their  duties.     Among  them  were  such 


ST.  MICHAEL'S   CHURCH  CHARLESTON.  229 

men  as  Robert  Maule,  conspicuous  for  his  attention  to  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  French  refugees,  who  from  the  first 
formed  an  important  part  of  the  colony,  and  many  of 
whom  conformed  to  the  Church  of  England.  The  parish 
of  St.  James,  Santee,  was  formed  in  1 706  expressly  for 
their  benefit;  and  during  the  sufferings  from  the  Indian 
war,  Philippe  de  Richebourg,  the  first  minister,  and  his 
colleague,  La  Pierre,  were  both  aided  by  the  Venerable 
Society,  though  not  employed  by  it. 

The  parish  of  St.  Philip  continued  to  be  the  only  church 
in  Charleston  until  1751,  when  St.  Michael's  was  formed, 
comprising  all  parts  of  the  town  south  of  the  middle  of 
Broad  Street.  The  ministers  in  Charleston  were  more 
favored  than  those  of  the  country  parishes.  Their  con- 
gregations were  steadier  and  the  growth  more  regular. 
The  unhealthiness  of  the  rice-plantations  drove  many  of 
the  wealthy  planters  from  the  country  to  reside  six  months 
in  the  year  in  the  town,  so  that  often  regular  services  were 
only  maintained  in  the  country  churches  from  November 
till  June. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  Charleston  had  become 
a  flourishing  town,  with  a  lucrative  commerce  and  hand- 
some houses,  which  were  the  homes  of  refined  and  intelli- 
gent families.  It  became  a  great  mart  of  trade,  and  soon 
the  seat  of  wealth  and  fashion.  There  was  a  marked  di- 
vision between  the  aristocrat  and  the  tradesman,  fostered 
by  the  institution  of  master  and  slave.  The  higher  circles 
became  distinguished  for  a  certain  elegance  and  polish,  the 
result  both  of  their  domestic  institutions  (which  gave  rise 
to  a  comparatively  leisure  class)  and  of  the  commingling 
of  the  French  element,  with  its  grace  and  refinement,  an 
element  which  was  large  and  influential,  and  which  soft- 
ened the  characteristics  of  the  English  race,  which  was 
here  less  predominant  and  formative  than  elsewhere.     The 


2  30  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ix. 

various  elements  combined  to  form  a  cultivated,  while 
virile  and  self-respecting  community.  In  this  community 
the  succession  of  rectors  was  respectable  and  respected. 
After  Ludlum  at  St.  Philip's  came  Millechamp,  Stone,  and 
Harrison,  the  last  of  whom  for  twenty  years,  from  1752  to 
1774,  carried  on  his  ministry  with  the  greatest  energy  and 
success.  The  church  was  then  a  power  and  the  center  of 
influence  in  the  colony. 

The  office  of  Commissary  of  the  Bishop  of  London 
was  early  established ;  and  Gideon  Johnston  was  first  ap- 
pointed to  it  in  I  707.  He  was  not  naturally  of  a  happy 
disposition,  but  he  was  distinguished  for  the  energy  with 
which  he  labored  after  the  things  which  make  for  peace. 
His  ministry  was  one  of  conciliation.  He  had  been  a 
clergyman  of  high  reputation  in  Ireland,  and  his  prudence 
and  discretion  were  a  distinct  benefit  to  the  church  in  its 
early  and  formative  condition. 

After  Johnston's  death  the  Rev.  William  Treadwell  Bull, 
incumbent  of  St.  Paul's,  Colleton,  was  made  commissary, 
and  showed  in  4:his  office  the  same  qualities  of  energy  and 
discretion  which  had  marked  him  as  rector,  and  which 
enabled  him  to  advance  greatly  the  material  and  spiritual 
interests  of  his  charge.  He  assembled  the  clergy  once  a 
year  for  conference,  and  was  fearless  in  his  exercise  of 
discipline,  though  kind  and  gracious  in  his  personal  inter- 
course. After  four  years  of  excellent  service  he  returned 
to  England,  in  1723;  and  from  "  A  Short  Memorial "  ^ 
which  he  had  compiled  of  the  state  of  the  church  in  the 
colony,  we  learn  that  there  were  at  that  time  in  South 
I  Carolina  thirteen  parishes — eight  in  Berkeley,  two  in 
Craven,  two  in  Colleton,  and  one  in  Granville  County. 
Of  the  eight  churches  in  Berkeley  County,  St.  Philip's  in 
Charleston  received  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  ster- 

1  Perry,  "  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,"  voh  i.,  p.  390. 


SUPPORT  OF   THE    COUNTRY  CHURCHES.  23 1 

ling  from  the  public  treasury  of  the  province,  besides  con- 
siderable perquisites  ;  and  there  was  also  a  grammar-school 
in  the  city,  which  was  allowed  from  the  same  source  sixty 
pounds,  in  addition  to  the  thirty  pounds  given  by  the 
Venerable  Society.  Each  of  the  other  seven  parishes  of 
the  county  had  one  hundred  pounds  proclamation  money 
from  the  provincial  treasury.  There  were  handsome  and 
substantial  churches  in  almost  all  of  them,  and  comfortable 
parsonage  houses  of  brick,  together  with  glebe-lands  of 
several  hundred  acres,  being  the  gift  of  the  government. 
St.  James's  at  Goose  Creek,  founded  by  the  first  missionary, 
Rev.  Samuel  Thomas,  was  a  very  flourishing  parish,  as 
were  also  St.  Andrew's  and  St.  George's.  All  these  seven 
churches  were  within  a  radius  of  twenty-five  miles  from 
the  city.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  these  parishes  were  served 
by  missionaries  from  the  Venerable  Society. 

The  Church  of  St.  Denis,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Thomas, 
consisted  of  a  congregation  of  French  refugees  who  had 
conformed  to  the  Church  of  England.  The  Rev.  John  La 
Pierre,  the  clergyman,  had  the  stipend  from  the  Assembly, 
but  was  no  missionary.  In  Craven  County  one  of  the 
two  churches  (St.  James's,  Santee)  was  likewise  a  church  of 
French  refugees  who  had  conformed ;  and  the  minister 
was  a  convert  from  the  Church  of  Rome.  Being  sixty 
miles  from  Charleston,  and  land,  in  consequence,  being 
less  valuable,  the  glebe  consisted  of  a  thousand  acres.  To 
King  George's  parish,  in  the  same  county,  the  General 
Assembly  allowed  one  thousand  pounds  for  the  building 
of  a  church,  to  which  Governor  Nicholson,  newly  ap- 
pointed, added  one  hundred  pounds.  These  churches 
were  respectively  sixty  and  ninety  miles  from  the  city. 
Of  the  two  parishes  in  Colleton  County,  St.  Bartholomew's 
had  been  vacant  since  17 15,  having  been  then  depopulated 
by  the  Indian  war;   while  St.  Paul's,  twenty  miles  from 


232  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ix. 

Charleston,  had  a  brick  church,  which,  being  found  too 
small,  was  enlarged  and  beautified  by  the  parishioners 
themselves  at  a  cost  of  one  thousand  pounds,  to  which  the 
Assembly  added  five  hundred  pounds  currency,  and  to 
which  Mr.  Whitemarsh,  a  parishioner,  left  a  legacy  of  one 
hundred  pounds.  To  the  one  parish  of  St.  Helen's,  in 
Granville  County,  which  also  had  become  depopulated  in 
the  Indian  war,  the  Assembly  gave  one  thousand  pounds 
and  the  governor  one  hundred  pounds  for  the  building 
of  the  church.  It  is  thus  seen  that  in  temporalities  the 
church  in  South  Carolina,  when  Commissary  Bull  left  it, 
was  in  a  prosperous  condition ;  and  its  religious  condition 
was  without  scandal,  and,  as  even  Wesley  ^  testified  later, 
in  a  healthy  spiritual  state. 

Alexander  Garden,  who  had  been  rector  of  St.  Philip's, 
Charleston,  since  1719,  was  made  commissary  by  Bishop 
Gibson  in  1 726.  His  province  included  the  Bahama 
Islands,  as  well  as  the  whole  of  Carolina,  North  and  South. 
When  he,  in  1 749,  resigned  his  rectorship,  the  vestry  of 
St.  Philip's  spoke  warmly  of  the  "  zeal,  piety,  and  candor" 
which  for  more  than  thirty  years  had  proved  him  a  good 
shepherd  of  Christ's  flock.  His  chief  notoriety  came  from 
his  collision  with  Whitefield,  whose  loose  ways  and  intoler- 
ant denunciations  of  his  less  ardent  brethren  found  no  favor 
in  the  eyes  of  one  who  was  set  for  the  defense  and  propaga- 
tion of  the  decorum  and  reasonableness  of  the  Established 
Church.  He  summoned  Whitefield  before  an  ecclesias- 
tical court  in  St.  Philip's  Church  for  his  irregularities ;  and 
Whitefield  appeared  and  protested,  making  objection  to  the 
authority  of  the  court.      Time  was  given  him  to  exhibit  his 

1  In  1737  John  Wesley  went  up  from  Georgia  to  Charleston,  and  met  the 
clergy  of  South  Carolina  at  their  Annual  Visitation.  With  them  he  had 
"  such  a  conversation  on  Christian  Righteousness  as  he  had  not  heard  at  any 
Visitation,  or  hardly  on  any  other  occasion."  (Wesley's  "Journal,"  April 
17-22,  1737.) 


COMMISSARY  GARDEN  AND    WHITEFIELD.         233 

objections;  but  judgment  was  at  last  pronounced  against 
him.  Then  there  was  another  appeal  to  the  lord  commis- 
sioners at  home,  and  after  a  year  Whitefield  was  again  sum- 
moned. He  neither  appeared  nor  sent  an  answer,  and  the 
decree  of  suspension  from  his  office  he  neither  noticed  nor 
regarded.  The  whole  affair  must  have  seemed  to  him 
like  a  very  small  affray  at  a  way-station,  past  which  the 
express-train  of  his  enthusiasm  was  rushing  on  the  more 
momentous  matters  of  spiritual  life  or  death. 

Not  so  to  Commissary  Garden,  to  whose  legal  mind  the 
whole  transaction  involved  the  order  and  stability  of  his 
church.  He  suspended  the  ardent  and  erratic  evangelist 
from  his  office,  and  published  "  Six  Letters  to  the  Rev. 
George  Whitefield,"  criticising  both  his  doctrinal  and 
ecclesiastical  positions.  This  most  famous  episode  in 
Garden's  life  as  commissary  would  give  a  wrong  impression 
of  him  if  it  led  one  to  infer  that  he  was  a  mere  ecclesiastical 
martinet,  scrupulous  as  to  the  letter  and  unalive  to  the 
spirit  of  his  office.  He  was  himself  earnest  and  devout  in 
the  work  of  the  ministry,  though  not  an  enthusiast,  as  in 
those  times  men  of  Whitefield's  temperament  were  called. 
For  thirty-four  years  he  was  the  faithful  rector  of  St. 
Philip's,  Charleston.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  religious'^* 
education,  and  himself  inaugurated  and  superintended  a; 
negro  school  of  seventy  pupils,  besides  bestowing  much  ' 
time  and  attention  upon  the  free  school,  which  long  out- 
lived him.  This  was  done  in  the  face  of  many  difficulties, 
at  a  time  when  the  government  had  not  one  institution  for 
the  fifty  thousand  negroes  in  the  colony. 

By  his  exemplary  life  and  earnest  ministrations  he 
gained  and  retained  a  strong  hold  on  the  hearts  of  his 
people ;  and  no  commissary  left  a  more  lasting  or  useful 
influence  on  the  church  and  community.  The  liberality 
of  the  church  was  so  stimulated  during  his  administration, 


234  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  ix. 

and  contributions  to  churches  and  schools  became  so 
generous,  that  in  1759  the  Venerable  Society  decided  not 
to  fill  up  the  existing  missions  in  the  province  as  they  be- 
came vacant.  In  1 769,  however,  a  special  call  was  made 
on  behalf  of  the  Protestant  Palatines  in  South  Carolina, 
which  immigrants  were  unable  to  support  a  minister.  Their 
settlement  was  from  fifty  to  seventy  miles  distant  from  any 
clergyman  already  in  the  province.  To  this  last  and  ex- 
ceptional appeal  the  society  responded,  sending  the  Rev. 
S.  F.  Lucius,  who  continued  among  the  Palatines  as  the 
society's  missionary  until  the  end  of  the  Revolution. 

Garden  resigned  his  position  as  commissary  in  1 749, 
after  twenty-three  years'  service ;  and  four  years  later  he 
resigned  the  rectorship  of  St.  Philip's,  having  held  the 
position  from  17 19  until  1753,  thirty-four  years.  He  died 
in  Charleston,  to  which  he  returned  after  a  visit  to  England, 
in  1756,  in  the  seventy-first  year  of  his  age. 

The  year  after  his  death  Rev.  Robert  Smith,  who  had  an 
immense  influence  upon  the  attitude  of  the  church  in  South 
Carolina  during  the  war  and  over  its  fortunes  subsequent 
to  the  Revolution,  was  made  an  assistant  at  St.  Philip's, 
and  in  1759  became  its  rector,  succeeding  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Clark.  Though  an  Englishman,  educated  at  Cambridge 
University,  he  was  a  decided  and  consistent  patriot.  At 
first  inclined  to  sustain  the  crown,  on  the  appeal  to  arms 
he  sided  with  the  colonists,  stirring  up  the  people  to  re- 
sistance by  his  preaching,  and,  at  the  siege  of  Charleston, 
serving  in  the  ranks.  To  his  influence  and  example  is  to 
be  largely  attributed  the  fact  that,  while  in  the  Northern 
colonies  not  one  in  ten  of  the  church  clergy  opposed  Great 
Britain,  in  South  Carolina  three  fourths  of  them  were 
patriots.  His  banishment  by  the  British,  when  Charleston 
surrendered  to  them,  only  endeared  him  the  more  to  the 
people  on  his  return  after  the  war.      He  at  once  set  to 


THE  LAITY  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  235 

work  with  characteristic  energy  to  restore  the  waste  places. 
It  was  mainly  by  his  advice  that  the  church  in  South 
Carolina  sent  her  delegates  to  the  earliest  General  Con- 
vention held  at  Philadelphia  for  the  organization  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church ;  and,  as  was  most  fitting,  he 
was  elected  first  bishop  of  the  diocese  of  South  Carolina 
in  1795. 

Among  the  most  distinguished  and  faithful  missionaries 
in  the  colony  was  Rev.  John  Hodges,  who  came  to  Prince 
Frederick's  parish  from  St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  in  1736, 
literally  starved  out  of  that  inhospitable  province.  For 
fifteen  years  he  showed  a  zeal  and  devotion  worthy  of  all 
praise,  and  ended  his  labors  only  with  his  life,  in  1751. 
Mention  also  must  be  made  of  Rev.  Thomas  Russell,  who 
for  thirty-five  years  ministered  to  the  parish  of  St.  Thomas 
to  such  effect  that  a  number  of  his  parishioners,  among 
whom  Mr.  Beresford  and  Mr.  Harris  were  the  most  con- 
spicuous, left  large  legacies  to  aid  him  in  his  parochial 
work  in  the  care  and  education  of  the  poor.  In  fact,  no- 
where in  the  land  was  there  shown  among  the  laity  a  more 
active  and  beneficent  spirit  than  among  the  churchmen  of 
South  Carolina.  In  some  parishes  a  chief  planter  would 
build  a  church  or  erect  a  parsonage  or  present  the  glebe- 
land  or  provide  an  endowment.  The  clergy  and  the  laity 
stood  well  together ;  and  though  the  province  was  ravaged 
again  and  again  by  war,  neither  the  churqh  spirit  nor  the 
church  property  wholly  disappeared  amid  the  horror  and 
turmoil  of  the  Revolution. 

During  its  earlier  history  and  time  of  need  the  Vener-i 
able  Society  had  assisted  in  maintaining  fifty-four  mis-l 
sionaries  and  establishing  fifteen  central  stations  in  South 
Carolina.  Unlike  most  colonies,  this  one  outgrew,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  necessity  of  much  help,  by  reason  of  the 
generosity  of  the  laity  and  the  endowments  by  the  gov- 


236  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.       [Chap.  ix. 

ernment.  Yet  this  happy  result  was  the  outcome  of  the 
society's  earher  fostering  care. 

If  we  now  turn  to  the  northern  settlement  on  the 
Albemarle,  known  after  1729  as  North  Carolina,  we  find 
that  the  real  history  of  the  church  begins  with  the  labors 
of  the  Venerable  Society  in  its  behalf.  It  is  true  that  in 
I1701  the  Assembly , took  so  much  notice  of  the  wants  of 
'the  settlement  as  to  pass  an  act  constituting  each  of  the 
four  precincts  in  Albemarle,  and  one  in  Bath,  parishes,  and 
appointing  a  select  vestry  in  each.  The  vestry  was  em- 
powered to  lay  a  tax,  not  exceeding  five  shillings  a  head, 
to  build  churches,  buy  glebes,  and  employ  ministers,  the 
salaries  of  the  latter  not  to  exceed  thirty  pounds  in  com- 
modities, equal  to  sixteen  pounds  sterling.  Under  this  act 
only  one  church  was  built,  at  what  is  now  Edenton,  and 
another  begun,  but  not  finished,  in  Perquimans.  Some 
religious  books  had  been  sent  over  by  Dr.  Bray  the  year 
previous;  but  an  unworthy  minister  (the  only  one  we 
hear  of)  destroyed  the  good  effects  they  were  meant  to 
accomplish.  Of  him  the  record  is  brief,  but  pointed : 
"  For  about  half  a  year  he  behaved  in  a  modest  manner, 
after  that  in  a  horrid  manner." 

Keith  and  Talbot,  on  their  missionary  tour  for  the 
Venerable  Society,  essayed  to  visit  this  region  in  1 703  ; 
but,  after  preaching  once  at  a  house  in  Currituck,  they 
were  unable  to  penetrate  farther  into  the  country,  because 
of  its  swamps  and  marshes  and  the  lack  of  any  means 
of  conveyance.  In  1 704  the  Rev.  John  Blair  was  sent 
out  by  the  Venerable  Society  upon  funds  supplied  by  Lord 
Weymouth ;  but  he,  enfeebled  by  sickness,  returned  in 
in  a  few  months,  declaring  the  region  to  be  the  most  bar- 
barous place  on  the  continent.  The  country  then,  indeed, 
was  most  wild  and  difficult  of  access.  Roads  and  bridges 
there  were  none.      Traveling  was  chiefly  by  canoes  along 


MISSIONARIES  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA.  237 

the  watercourses,  and  through  the  forests  and  marshes  by 
infrequent  paths  more  easy  to  lose  than  to  find.  How- 
ever, in  I  708,  Gordon  and  Adams  were  sent  out  as  per- 
manent missionaries,  and  to  them  were  assigned  the  four 
parishes  or  districts  laid  out  by  the  Assembly  in  1701. 
They  found  a  most  illiterate  people.  Few  even  of  the 
justices  of  the  peace  and  vestrymen  could  read  or  write. 
With  this  ignorance  was  combined  the  opposition  of  the 
Indians ;  so  that,  after  a  year,  Gordon  returned  to  England, 
"  unable  to  endure  the  distractions  among  the  people,  and 
other  intolerable  inconveniences  in  the  colony."  Adams 
served  faithfully  for  three  years,  when  he  died,  in  17 10. 
He  earned  the  character  of  "  a  pious  and  painfull  pastor," 
who  "  had  much  conduced  to  promote  the  great  end  of 
his  mission."  He  left  more  communicants  in  Currituck 
than  could  be  found  in  most  of  the  neighboring  parishes 
of  Virginia,  where  there  had  long  been  a  settled  ministry ; 
but  he  declared  in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  "  Nothing  but 
my  true  concern  for  so  many  poor  souls,  and  my  duty  to 
those  good  men  who  reposed  this  trust  in  me,  could  have 
induced  me  to  stay  in  so  disorderly  and  barbarous  a  place, 
where  I  have  undergone  a  world  of  trouble  and  misery 
both  in  body  and  mind." 

At  this  time  there  was  no  organized  religious  dissent  in 
the  colony,  except  the  Quakers,  who  were  reckoned  by 
Adams  to  constitute  one  seventh  of  the  population.  A 
few  Presbyterians  at  Pasquotank  conformed  to  the  church 
under  Adams's  ministrations,  as  did  also  a  small  colony  of 
Huguenots  from  Virginia  who  settled  in  Bath.  The  rest 
of  the  population  on  both  sides  of  Albemarle  Sound  and 
along  the  Pamlico  River  were  nominal  churchmen,  igno- 
rant and  careless  of  both  church  principles  and  religious 
obhgations.  Until  the  Revolution  of  1776,  however,  the 
people  asserted  through  their  legislature  that  the  Church 


238  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  ix. 

of  England  was  the  church  of  North  Carolina.  They 
accepted  the  establishment  of  the  church  as  part  of  the 
necessary  machinery  of  civilization ;  but  in  no  department 
of  their  work  did  the  missionaries  receive  much  help  from 
the  colonists.  These  missionaries  were,  with  one  excep- 
tion, faithful  men ;  and  the  reports  which  reached  the 
society  in  England  were  uniformly  satisfactory.  They 
were  by  no  means  equal  to  the  task  laid  upon  them ;  but 
they  served  to  keep  religion  alive  by  preaching  from  house 
to  house  and  baptizing  from  five  hundred  to  a  thousand 
persons  a  year.  The  legal  establishment  of  the  church 
did  not  help  them ;  it  was  rather  a  hindrance.  The  rev- 
enues it  provided  were  never  adequate  to  support  the 
minister  or  build  the  needed  churches ;  while  the  tax  im- 
posed to  raise  these  revenues  exasperated  the  opposition 
of  dissenters.  Still  the  leading  men  in  North  Carolina, 
repelled  by  the  narrowness  and  ignorance  which  generally 
characterized  the  dissenters,  regarded  the  church  as  an 
essential  part  of  a  well-ordered  commonwealth.  Endeav- 
oring to  reproduce  English  civilization  and  English  insti- 
tutions here,  they  recognized  that  the  English  Church  was 
a  most  powerful  instrument  to  these  ends.  Thus  they 
stood  out  for  the  Establishment,  inadequate  as  it  was ; 
while  it  was  the  missionaries,  dependent  mostly  on  the 
society's  support,  who  laid,  in  much  suffering  and  want, 
the  foundations  of  the  church.  "  In  weariness,  in  painful- 
ness,  in  watchings  often,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in 
perils  among  false  brethren,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fast- 
ings often,  in  cold  and  nakedness,"  they  reproduced  the 
apostoHc  life  and  sought  to  emulate  the  apostles'  labors. 
"  Compelled  to  lodge,  when  at  home,  in  some  old  tobacco- 
house,  and,  when  they  traveled,  to  lie  oftentimes  whole 
nights  in  the  woods,  and  to  live  for  days  together  upon 
no  other  food  but  bread   moistened  in  brackish  water; 


PRIVATIONS  AND  LABORS   OF  MISSIONARIES.      239 

journeying  amid  deep  swamps  and  along  broken  roads 
tlirough  a  wild  and  desert  country,  and  finding  themselves, 
at  the  distance  of  every  twenty  miles,  upon  the  banks  of 
some  broad  river  which  they  could  only  cross  by  good 
boats  and  experienced  watermen,  neither  of  which  aids 
were  at  their  command ;  encountering  in  some  of  the 
plantations  the  violent  opposition  of  various  nonconform- 
ists, already  settled  there  in  preponderating  numbers; 
receiving  in  others  the  promise  of  some  small  stipend  from 
the  vestry,  which  was  called  a  '  hiring,'  and,  if  paid  at  all, 
was  paid  in  bills  which  could  only  be  disposed  of  at  an 
excessive  discount;  forced,  therefore,  to  work  hard  with 
ax  and  hoe  and  spade  to  keep  their  families  and  them- 
selves from  starving,  ...  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  surprise 
that  some  of  them  should  have  sought  once  more  the 
shelter  and  rest  of  their  native  land."^ 

Into  this  rough  land  and  rougher  living  there  came  from 
time  to  time  men  of  striking  character ;  and  the  Venerable 
Society  assisted  in  maintaining  thirty-three  missionaries 
in  the  province  up  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  Suc- 
cessive missionaries  for  many  years  had,  in  addition  to 
other  hardships,  to  encounter  dangers  arising  from  the 
incursions  of  the  Indians.  Efforts  were,  nevertheless, 
made  to  instruct  and  preach  the  gospel  to  the  savages. 
The  negroes,  also,  were  as  far  as  possible  cared  for. 

After  the  death  of  Adams,  Rainsford  came  out,  in  17 12, 
and,  though  he  remained  only  a  year  in  the  province,  in- 
terested himself  greatly  in  the  remains  of  the  Chowan  and 
other  Indian  tribes.  The  notorious  Mr.  Urmston,  who 
later  created  so  much  disturbance  at  Philadelphia,  in 
relation  to  Mr.  Talbot  and  the  so-called  nonjuror  bishops, 
had  come  out  in  171 1  ;  but,  while  enduring  many  hard- 
ships, his  career  was  of  no  service  or  credit  to  the  church. 

1  Anderson,  "  Colonial  Church,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  489. 


240  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  ix. 

"  He  did  more  harm  to  the  church  in  North  Carolina  than 
any  man.  He  was  scurrilous,  profane,  intemperate,  and 
mendacious.  His  appearance  upon  the  stage  of  action  is 
one  of  the  events  which  mark  and  darken  the  records  of 
1711."^  He,  however,  remained  ten  years. 
I  In  1 7 1 5  the  Assembly  divided  the  country  into  nine  par- 
ishes, instead  of  five  as  before,  and  established  salaries  for 
the  ministers  of  each  parish,  not  to  exceed  fifty  pounds  in 
the  currency  of  the  province.  The  vestries,  however,  took 
very  little  pains  to  make  the  law  of  support  operative,  and 
there  were  no  clergymen  to-do  the  required  service.  The 
act  continued  in  force  until  1741,  new  parishes  being 
formed  from  time  to  time  by  the  Assembly.  When,  in 
1 718,  Rev.  Ebenezer  Taylor  came  to  Albemarle  from 
South  Carolina  by  the  direction  of  the  Venerable  Society, 
he  rejected  the  legal  support  of  the  act,  and  lived  on  the 
voluntary  ofTerings  of  the  people.  He  was  an  old  and 
feeble  man,  but  diligent  and  devout.  His  labors  among 
the  negro  and  Indian  slaves  were  discountenanced  and 
forbidden  by  the  planters,  under  the  impression  that  bap- 
tism manumitted  a  slave.  His  career  was  a  short  one ; 
for,  while  making  a  missionary  tour  from  Bath  to  Cove 
Sound,  he  was  exposed  for  ten  days  in  an  open  boat  in 
very  severe  weather,  and  he  died  in  consequence.  His 
death,  in  i  720,  left  Mr.  Urmston  the  only  minister  in  the 
colony,  and  he  left  it  the  next  year,  much  to  the  relief  of 
the  people. 

For  some  years  following  his  departure  but  little  is 
known  of  the  scattered  congregations.  There  were  brief 
ministrations  by  Newman  and  Bailey  and  Blackwall  and 
Granville  ;  and  La  Pierre,  the  Huguenot,  came  from  South 
Carolina  to  the  Cape  Fear  River  upon  the  invitation  of 

1  De   Rosset,  "Church   History  in  North   Carolina,"    chap,    iii.,   p.   62; 
Rev.  J.  B.  Cheshire,  "  The  Church  in  the  Province  of  North  Carolina," 


THE    VESTRY  ACT  OF  17 4I.  24 1 

the  people.  In  1730,  however,  there  was  not  one  minister! 
of  the  Church  of  England  settled  in  North  Carolina.  The 
only  ministrations  were  those  of  Rev.  Mr.  Jones,  of  Vir- 
ginia, who  officiated  once  a  month  at  Bertie.  An  itinerant 
missionary  was  then  appointed  by  the  Venerable  Society  to 
travel  through  the  whole  country  and  officiate  occasionally 
in  every  part  of  it.  This  was  Mr.  John  Boyd,  who  was  a 
graduate  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  had  been  a 
physician  in  Virginia.  He  went  to  London  for  orders, 
the  first  candidate  from  North  Carolina,  in  1732.  Re- 
turning, he  became  the  minister  in  the  northwest  parish  of 
Bertie.  He  seems  to  have  labored  with  assiduity,  but  died 
after  five  years'  service,  a  missionary  of  the  society  to  the 
last.  Then  the  province  was  divided  into  two  itinerant 
missions,  to  one  of  which  was  appointed  Rev.  J.  Garzia, 
who  had  come  from  Virginia. 

A  new  Vestry  Act  was  passed  by  the  Assembly  in 
I  741.  It  differed  from  former  acts  in  that  it  provided  that 
the  vestry  should  be  chosen  by  the  freeholders  of  the 
parish  in  an  election  to  be  held  by  the  sheriff  on  Easter 
Monday  of  every  alternate  year  beginning  with  1742. 
Hitherto  the  vestries  had  been  close  corporations  and  self- 
perpetuating.  The  act  of  1741  made  the  number  oft 
parishes  seventeen.  It  gave  power  to  the  vestry  to  stop 
the  stipend  of  a  minister  guilty  of  scandalous  immorality. 
This  act  recognized  and  declared  the  right  of  performing 
the  marriage  service  to  lie  in  the  clergy  of  the  church, 
there  being  at  that  time  no  organized  body  of  dissenters 
in  the  province,  and  no  dissenting  minister  who  claimed 
any  ministerial  authority  to  perform  the  marriage  cere- 
mony. 

The  clergy,  at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  this  act,  con- 
sisted only  of  Rev.  Mr.  Garzia,  of  St.  Thomas's  Church, 
Bath,  who  had  been  appointed  itinerant  missionary  by  the 


242  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  ix. 

Venerable  Society  in  1737,  and  the  Rev.  James  Moir,  who 
had  lately  come  from  South  Carolina  to  St.  James's 
Church,  New  Hanover.  Mr.  Moir  was  a  diligent  and  de- 
voted man,  who  officiated  in  the  province  until  his  death, 
in  1767.  He  is  cited  by  Bishop  Chester  as  an  example  of 
the  Establishment  idea  applied  to  the  facts  of  American 
colonial  life.  "  He  did  not  lack  abilities  or  worth,  but  he 
was  all  the  time  vexing  himself  and  railing  at  his  circum- 
stances because  he  could  not  make  the  Established  sys- 
tem work.  He  held  several  important  positions,  as  at 
St.  James's,  Wilmington,  and  St.  Philip's,  Brunswick,  and 
St.  Mary's,  Edgecombe;  and  for  a  while  he  traveled  and 
preached  extensively.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  ac- 
complished little  or  nothing,  because  he  was  fettered  by 
the  system  under  which  he  had  been  brought  up."  ^ 
[  A  different  career  was  that  of  Rev.  Clement  Hall,  who 
went  to  London  in  1 743  for  holy  orders,  the  second  native 
candidate  who  went  out  from  North  Carolina.  He  had 
been  a  magistrate  in  the  Commission  of  the  Peace  in  the 
colony,  and  had  officiated  for  several  years  as  a  lay  reader 
in  congregations  destitute  of  an  ordained  minister.  The 
estimation  in  which  he  was  held,  both  as  a  legal  officer  and 
a  church  layman,  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  his  letters  of 
application  were  signed  by  the  attorney-general,  the 
sheriffs  and  clergy  of  the  province  testifying  that  he  was 
of  "  very  good  repute,  life,  and  conversation."  He  re- 
turned, after  ordination  in  1744,  as  a  missionary  of  the 
Venerable  Society,  with  an  allowance  of  thirty  pounds  a 
year,  and  from  that  time  gave  himself  up  to  a  life  of 
almost  incessant  labor.  Unlike  Moir,  he  found  the  system 
of  the  Establishment  no  insuperable  barrier  to  his  labors, 
because  he  was  not  working  for  the  system,  but  simply 
sought  to  bring  the  gospel  to  bear  upon  the  people.     For 

1  See  De  Rosset,  "  Church  History  in  North  Carolina,"  p.  72. 


THE  REV.   CLEMENT  HALL.  243 

twelve  years  he  was  the  only  clergyman  for  hundreds  of 
miles  of  country.  Though  his  labors  were  chiefly  confined 
to  Chowan  County,  they  were  extended  at  stated  periods 
to  three  others.  The  distance  and  difficulties  of  his  jour- 
neys in  this  rough  country  were  very  great;  but  he  was 
cheered  by  the  eager  sympathy  of  the  people.  The 
chapels  and  court-houses  were  seldom  large  enough  to 
contain  half  the  numbers  who  flocked  to  hear  him.  He 
preached  often  beneath  the  trees  of  the  forest,  by  the 
riverside,  and  by  the  sea.  His  health  was  delicate ;  but 
he  was  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season  in  his  work. 
Eight  years  after  the  beginning  of  his  ministry,  in  1752, 
he  gave  this  summary  of  his  labors : 

"  I  have  now,  through  God's  gracious  assistance  and 
blessing,  been  enabled  .  .  .  to  journey  about  14,000  miles, 
preach  about  675  sermons,  baptize  about  5783  white  chil- 
dren, 243  black  children,  57  white  adults,  and  ii2  black 
adults — in  all,  6195  persons;  sometimes  administering  the 
Holy  Sacrament  of  ye  Lord's  Supper  to  2  or  300  com- 
municants in  one  journey,  besides  churching  of  women, 
visiting  the  sick,  etc.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  my 
health  and  constitution  is  much  impair'd  and  broken  by 
reason  of  my  contin.  Labours  and  also  from  the  injurious 
treatment  I  have  often  reed,  from  the  adversaries  of  our 
Church  and  Constitution  ;  for  w'ch  I  do  and  pray  God  to 
forgive  them  and  turn  their  hearts."^ 

After  this,  in  1753,  he  reports  that  in  thirty-five  days 
he  traveled  536  miles,  officiated  in  23  congregations,  bap- 
tized 467  white  and  21  black  children  and  2  white  women. 
Where  others  found  discouragement  he  found  happiness 
and  hope.  His  annual  stipend  from  the  society  never 
exceeded  the  thirty  pounds  per  annum  with  which  he  set 
out;  and  he  must  have  supplied  from  his  own  resources 

1  "  Digest  of  S.  P.  G.  Records,"  third  edition,  p.  24. 


244  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  ix. 

much  of  the  means  needed  for  the  prosecution  of  his  work. 
At  length,  in  1755,  because  of  his  faiHng  strength,  he  was 
reheved  from  the  cares  of  an  itinerant  missionary,  and  was 
appointed  to  St.  Paul's  parish,  Edenton.  No  sooner  there 
than  he  lost  his  house,  books,  and  most  of  his  personal 
property  by  fire.  To  supply  this  lack  the  Venerable 
Society  voted  him  a  grant  of  money  and  a  new  library  for 
the  use  of  the  mission.  With  courage  unbroken,  he  per- 
severed unto  the  end.  It  came  in  1759,  after  a  ministry 
of  fifteen  years.  In  the  words  of  Canon  Anderson,  "  At 
the  expiration  of  four  years  after  his  appointment  to  St. 
Paul's,  worn  out  with  sickness  and  hard  toil,  Clement  Hall 
closed,  in  the  bosom  of  an  affectionate  and  grateful  peo- 
ple, a  career  of  pious  usefulness  which  has  been  rarely,  if 
ever,  equaled."  ^ 

Another  missionary  who  deserves  to  be  ranked  with 
Clement  Hall  was  Rev.  Alexander  Stewart,  who  came  to 
the  province  in  1753  as  minister  of  St.  Thomas's  Church, 
Bath.  For  eighteen  years  he  preached  and  ministered  to 
the  people  of  Beaufort,  Hyde,  and  Pitt  counties,  serving 
thirteen  chapels  besides  his  parish  church.  He  gave 
special  attention  to  the  negroes  and  Indians,  employing 
and  paying  a  schoolmistress  to  teach  Indian  boys  and  girls 
and  a  few  negro  children,  supplying  them  also  with  books. 
He  too  suffered  much  from  sickness,  and  for  a  time  rheu- 
matism deprived  him  of  the  use  of  his  limbs.  As  one  fruit 
of  his  labors  in  Bath  he  sent  two  notable  men  to  England 
as  candidates  for  holy  orders,  Mr.  Peter  Blinn  and  Mr. 
Nathaniel  Blount,  who  afterward  served  the  church  long 
and  faithfully. 

There  were  more  of  these  pluralists  in  labor,  if  mendi- 
cants in  purse.  Among  them  was  the  Rev.  James  Reed, 
who  came  from  England  to  Christ  Church,  New  Berne,  in 

1  Anderson,  "  History  of  the  Colonial  Church,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  493. 


GOVERNOR    TRYON'S  INFLUENCE. 


245 


the  same  year  that  Mr.  Stewart  came  to  Bath.  He  served 
nine  chapels  in  Craven  and  Carteret  counties,  and  he  built 
the  New  Berne  Academy.  He  was  a  loyaHst,  and  disap- 
peared at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  leaving  behind  him 
the  reputation  of  a  man  of  honor  and  a  faithful  minister  of 
God. 

By  1754  Wilmington  had  grown  to  be  the  largest  town 
in  the  province  ;  and  handsome  churches  had  been  begun 
both  there  and  in  Brunswick,  though  they  were  long  in 
building,  and  were  not  finished  until  within  a  few  years  of 
the  Revolution.  These  churches  were  served  by  a  suc- 
cession of  worthy  men :  McDowell  and  Barnet  and  Mills 
and  Christian.  Clement  Hall  was  succeeded  in  Edenton 
by  Rev.  Daniel  Earl,  who  continued  in  charge  through  the 
War  of  the  Revolution,  and  reported  in  1775  that  he  had 
not  received  a  shilling  of  his  salary  from  his  parish  for  near 
three  years.  Burgess  became  the  minister  of  Edgecombe 
parish,  Halifax;  and  his  grandson  in  1834  conveyed  to  the 
vestry  of  Calvary  Church,  Harborough,  a  lot  which  his 
grandfather  had  purchased  at  the  laying  out  of  the  town. 

When  Governor  Tryon  began  his  administration  there 
came  a  great  increase  of  ecclesiastical  activity  through  the 
stimulus  of  his  own  zeal  for  the  church.  He  won  the 
good  will  of  dissenters  by  his  generous  appreciation  of 
them,  while  he  zealously  promoted  the  interests  of  the 
church,  all  of  whose  ministers  found  in  his  house  a  boun- 
teous hospitality  and  a  hearty  sympathy.  He  was  recog- 
nized by  the  clergy  as  a  ready  and  indefatigable  friend. 
Owing  to  a  disconnected  series  of  acts  by  the  Assembly 
between  1754  and  1764,  the  province  was  left  without  any 
legal  vestries,  much  to  the  confusion  of  the  ministers.  In 
the  latter  year  this  was  remedied  by  an  act  providing  for 
the  election  of  vestries  and  the  support  of  the  ministers, 
whose  salaries  were  raised  to  a  hundred  and  thirty-three 


246  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  ix. 

pounds.  As  the  act  still  left  the  election  of  vestrymen  to 
the  freeholders  of  the  parish,  dissenters  might  be  elected,  and 
the  vestry  remain  inactive  in  parishes  where  the  services 
of  the  church  were  not  desired.  The  act,  however,  provided 
that  in  case  an  elected  vestryman  should  refuse  to  qualify, 
if  a  known  dissenter,  he  should  be  fined  three  pounds. 

Under  these  acts  scarcely  any  contest  took  place  be- 
tween dissenters  and  churchmen  in  regard  to  enforcing  the 
law.  This  peace  and  harmony  was  perhaps  not  so  much 
owing  to  the  wisdom  of  the  law  as  to  the  fact  that  each 
section  of  the  province  had  been  settled  by  a  homogeneous 
population.^  The  northern  counties  from  Orange  to  the 
seaboard  were  chiefly  English  and  favorable  to  the  church. 
To  the  west  the  Presbyterians,  the  Lutherans,  and  the  Dutch 
Reformed  had  each  their  settlements,  but  in  separate  and 
distinct  communities.  In  such  communities  the  vestrymen 
elected  performed  their  civil  duties,  but,  as  no  Episcopal 
service  was  wanted,  ignored  their  ecclesiastical  functions. 
The  governor,  the  Assembly,  and  the  Episcopal  clergy  ac- 
quiesced in  this  state  of  things.  When,  in  1 766,  the  Rev. 
Andrew  Morton  was  sent  out  from  England  to  St.  Martin's 
parish,  Mecklenburg  County,  the  inhabitants  being  all  Cove- 
nanters and  Seceders,  Governor  Tryon  simply  transferred 
him  to  St.  George's  parish  in  Bertie.  During  the  seven 
years  of  Tryon's  administration  the  number  of  clergy  in 
1  the  province  rose  from  five  to  eighteen.  Almost  without 
exception  the  ministers  who  came  in  under  his  rule  were 
men  of  force  and  zeal.  They  were  distributed  from  Salis- 
bury to  the  seacoast,  some  being  supported  by  the  Ven- 
erable Society  in  conjunction  with  the  voluntary  offer- 
ings of  the  people,  and  engaged  in  establishing  new  con- 
gregations in  the  waste  places ;  others  settling  over  the 
churches  already  established,  and  creating  the  beginnings 

1  De  Rosset,  "  Church  History  in  North  Carolina,"  pp.  77,  78. 


REV.  EDWARD  JONES.  247 

of  educational  institutions.  The  stipends  furnished  to 
parishes  by  the  legislature  being  quite  insufificient  to  sup- 
port the  clergy  and  build  up  church  institutions,  the 
vestries  resorted  to  the  selling  of  pews  and  to  lotteries  to 
finish  the  churches.  But  the  laws,  while  inadequate  to 
the  support  of  the  church,  yet  served  to  exasperate 
its  opponents,  and  made  the  people  lethargic  in  doing 
their  part.  For  a  time  the  church  seemed  to  prosper,  and 
it  retained,  down  to  the  Revolution,  a  majority  of  the 
population  of  the  province.  At  the  beginning  of  that  war 
there  were  only  two  Baptist  associations  in  North  Carolina ; 
and  while  the  Methodists  were  becoming  numerous,  as  a 
body  they  were  still  loyal  to  the  church.  A  number  of 
young  men  ■  of  the  province  at  this  time  entered  the 
ministry. 

Macartney  and  Burges  and  Johnstone,  and  Blinn  and 
Jones,  went  over  for  orders,  and  returned  and  did  good  ser- 
vice. Of  the  last-mentioned,  Edward  Jones,  it  may  be  said 
that  he  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things  to  undertake  his  holy 
calling.  He  sold  his  patrimony  to  pay  the  expenses  of  his 
journey  to  England,  and,  being  stricken  with  illness  on  his 
arrival,  became  penniless  in  a  strange  land.  He  had  to 
walk  to  London,  and  sell  his  clothes  to  buy  food.  Some 
irregularity  being  found  in  his  papers  by  the  bishop,  he 
was  plunged  almost  into  insanity  by  his  desperate  condi- 
tion. Fortunately  he  recalled  the  fact  that  Governor 
Tryon,  whose  letters  he  bore,  had  a  sister  living  in  Lon- 
don, and,  finding  her,  he  received  her  compassionate 
assistance,  and  was  enabled  to  surmount  his  difficulties. 
His  case  is  here  quoted  as  an  instance  of  the  great  obsta- 
cles which  stood  in  the  way  of  those  who  would  serve  the 
church  in  her  ministry,  and  to  point  out  once  more  the 
cause  of  the  church's  tardy  growth,  by  reason  of  Parlia- 
ment's, refusal  to  grant  her  local  bishops. 


248  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  ix. 

It  is  to  be  noted  in  the  case  of  North  CaroHna  that  while 
the  EngHsh  government  estabHshed  the  church,  its  rev- 
enues came  entirely  from  the  Assembly  of  the  province. 
Native  taxes  furnished  such  means  as  were  given  it  by  the 
state;  and  these,  supplemented  by  voluntary  contributions, 
constituted  its  entire  support.  The  English  government 
furnished  neither  bishop  nor  revenue;  though  too  high 
praise  cannot  be  given  to  the  Venerable  Society,  which  so 
long  and  so  generously  contributed  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  missionaries  whom  it  sent  or  adopted. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  COLONIAL  CHURCH  IN  GEORGIA. 

Georgia  was  the  one  American  colony  founded  in 
benevolence.  The  unselfish  philanthropy  of  James  Edward 
Oglethorpe  suggested  and  promoted  it  as  a  refuge  for  poor 
debtors,  imprisoned,  by  the  cruel  and  senseless  laws  of  the 
time,  for  poverty,  and  wasting  their  lives  idly  in  English 
jails.  He  put  upon  the  seal  of  the  colony  the  legend, 
''Noil  sibi,  scd  aliis,"  and  it  well  described  the  character 
of  the  settlement.  The  purpose  of  the  undertaking  seemed 
to  inspire  with  the  spirit  of  philanthropy  those  who 
came  to  minister  to  it;  and  this  colony,  small  as  it  was, 
became  the  seat  of  the  most  extensive  philanthropic  in- 
stitution of  the  colonial  church — the  Bethesda  Orphan 
House  estabHshed  and  supported  by  Whitefield.  Interest 
in  the  colony  lies  more  in  the  agents  of  the  Venerable  So- 
ciety than  in  what  was  permanently  accomplished  for  the 
church.  With  it  are  associated  the  names  of  the  great  re- 
vivers of  practical  religion  in  the  English  Church  in  the 
eighteenth  century — John  and  Charles  Wesley  and  George 
Whitefield.  Their  efforts  in  Georgia  were  heroic.  It  seems 
strange  that  they  should  not  have  left  a  more  permanent 
impression  upon  it. 

The  first  settlement  took  place  in  November,  1732, 
when  Oglethorpe  himself,  accompanied  by  a  hundred  and 
thirty  persons,  arrived  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  and,  proceed- 
ing to  the  Savannah  River,  selected  the  site  and  laid  out 

249 


250  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  x. 

the  town  of  Savannah.  He  had  served  as  an  aide-de-camp 
to  Prince  Eugene,  and  assisted  at  the  capture  of  Belgrade, 
and  after  his  retirement  from  the  army  on  inheriting  the 
family  estates  had  entered  Parliament,  in  1732.  Being 
made  chairman  of  a  committee  on  prison  reform,  his  atten- 
tion was  arrested,  in  the  course  of  his  visitation  of  the  prison- 
ers, by  the  multitude  of  poor  debtors ;  and  the  sympathy 
awakened  by  their  wretched  condition  resulted  in  the  start- 
ing of  this  colonial  enterprise  for  their  relief.  He  organ- 
ized a  board  of  trustees,  and  obtained  a  grant  from  King 
George  H.  of  the  territory  between  the  Savannah  and  Alta- 
maha  rivers.  The  colony  was  to  be  distinct  from  South 
Carolina,  which  was  quite  willing  to  have  a  new  settlement 
established  as  a  barrier  between  her  and  the  Spaniards 
and  Indians  of  Florida.  Benevolent  people  of  his  own  rank 
combined  with  him  to  compound  with  the  creditors,  and 
by  the  king's  grant  all  things  were  made  ready.  Free- 
dom of  religion  was  to  be  enjoyed  by  all  except  papists ; 
the  corporators  were  to  govern  for  twenty-one  years; 
thereafter  the  king  should  ordain  the  form  of  government 
and  appoint  the  officers.  Arms  and  tools  were  furnished 
to  the  settlers.  Negro  slavery  and  spirituous  liquors  were 
strictly  forbidden.  Great  care  was  taken  to  choose  the 
emigrants  and  exclude  the  unworthy.  As  the  immigra- 
tion increased  several  villages  were  formed  on  the  Great 
and  Little  Ogeechee  rivers  and  elsewhere. 

With  Oglethorpe  and  his  first  company  came  Rev. 
Henry  Herbert,  D.D.,  as  chaplain;  but  he  remained  only 
three  months,  and  returned  home  to  die.  Application 
was  made  to  the  Venerable  Society  for  an  allowance  for 
Rev.  Samuel  Quincy,  the  minister  chosen  to  be  settled 
among  them,  until  the  glebe  of  three  hundred  acres  set 
apart  for  the  minister  became  productive  for  his  support. 
A  site  for  a  church  was  secured,  and  some  benefactions 


CHARLES    WESLEY  IN  GEORGIA.  25  I 

received  were  appropriated  to  erecting  a  church  building. 
Communion-plate  and  a  surplice  were  supplied ;  so  that 
Mr.  Quincy  was  not  wholly  unprovided.  He  had  not,  how- 
ever, the  stamina  of  a  pioneer  missionary,  and  only  stayed 
two  years.  There  was  much  grumbling  on  his  part,  for 
which,  doubtless,  there  was  occasion  enough  in  such  a  com- 
munity. Before  he  left,  John  and  Charles  Wesley  arrived. 
Dr.  Burton,  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  was  one  of 
the  Georgia  trustees,  and  he  commended  the  enthusiastic 
brothers  to  Oglethorpe.  Their  father.  Rev.  Samuel  Wes- 
ley, who  had  given  the  pewter  communion-plate  to  the 
first  chaplain,  was  dead.  But  after  consultation  with 
brother  and  mother,  and  much  reflection  and  prayer,  the 
two  determined  to  go  to  convert  the  Indians,  as  well  as 
to  minister  to  the  poor  white  debtors.  Could  devout- 
ness  devoid  of  common  sense  have  succeeded,  their  har- 
vest had  been  abundant.  Never  was  such  consecration 
and  such  zeal.  They  set  sail  in  October,  i  735,  and  arrived 
in  February  of  the  following  year.  Charles  stayed  but 
four  months.  He  was  assigned  to  Fredrica,  a  small  village 
on  the  island  of  St.  Simon,  intended  as  a  bulwark  against 
Spanish  invasion.  He  went  at  once,  and  began  his  strict 
church  discipline,  administering  strong  meat  to  those  to 
whom  even  the  milk  of  the  gospel  was  indigestible.  He 
at  once  insisted  on  baptizing  by  immersion  all  children  not 
physically  unable  to  bear  that  form  of  the  rite.  Four  times 
every  day  the  drum  beat  to  prayers ;  nor  would  the 
ardent  idealist  relax  the  discipline  in  the  least  for  any 
expostulation.  Such  efforts  proving  fruitless,  he  left  for 
England,  convinced,  doubtless,  of  the  divineness  of  his 
method  and  the  judicial  blindness  of  the  people  who  re- 
fused it. 

John  Wesley  abode  in  Savannah.      He  began  his  min- 
istry there  on  Quinquagesima  Sunday,  March  .7,   1735; 


252  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  x. 

and  such  a  ministry !  He  neither  spared  himself  nor  his 
flock ;  but  what  his  fiery  zeal  and  iron  constitution  enabled 
him  to  bear  was  a  burden  too  heavy  for  the  issue  of  a 
debtors'  prison.  He  had  little  time  to  give  to  the  con- 
version of  the  Indians,  as  the  bad  lives  of  his  countrymen 
absorbed  both  his  time  and  his  energies.  To  the  Italians 
from  Piedmont,  who  had  been  brought  out  to  introduce 
the  culture  of  silkworms,  he  also  gave  attention.  A 
company  of  Protestants  who  had  been  driven  out  of  Salz- 
burg had  come  over  in  i  734,  bringing  their  minister  with 
them,  and  had  settled  at  a  little  distance  from  the  town, 
on  Ebenezer  Creek,  and  also  a  company  of  pious  Mora- 
vians, who  had  planted  themselves  with  their  pastor  be- 
tween the  Germans  and  the  city.  Wesley  was  thus  not 
the  only  spiritual  leader  and  guide.  But  his  church  prin- 
ciples were  at  that  time  so  narrow  and  high  that  he  came 
into  frequent  collision  with  those  who  did  not  measure  up 
to  his  standard.  He  refused  the  holy  communion  to  an 
excellent  man  who  had  not  been  baptized  by  an  episcopally 
ordained  clergyman,  and,  without  the  privacy  of  a  confes- 
sional, he  assumed  the  role  of  director  to  the  consciences 
of  individuals  in  matters  beyond  the  limits  of  church  law. 
How  unwearied  were  his  labors  may  be  seen  by  a  brief 
extract  from  his  diary : 

"  Sunday,  30. — I  had  full  employment  for  that  Holy 
Day.  The  first  English  prayers  lasted  from  five  to  half- 
past  six.  The  Italian,  which  I  read  to  a  few  Vaudois, 
began  at  nine.  The  second  service  for  the  English  (in- 
cluding the  sermon  and  the  Holy  Communion)  continued 
from  half  an  hour  past  ten  to  half  an  hour  past  twelve. 
The  French  service  began  at  one.  At  two  I  catechised 
the  children.  About  three  I  began  the  English  service. 
After  this  was  ended  I  had  the  happiness  of  joining  with 
as  many  as  my  largest  room  would  hold,  in  reading,  prayer, 


JOHN   WESLEY  IN  GEORGIA.  253 

and  singing  praise ;  and  about  six  the  service  of  the  Mora- 
vians began,  at  which  I  was  glad  to  be  present,  not  as  a 
teacher,  but  a  learner." 

Thus  was  Wesley  iinsparing  of  himself.  He  was  equally 
unsparing  of  others.  He  drew  up  rules  for  a  stricter, 
holier  course  of  life,  which  he  called  "  ApostoHc  Institu- 
tions," because  they  were  modeled  on  the  primitive  church. 
To  these  he  expected  his  people  to  conform.  The  attrac- 
tion, however,  which  asceticism  almost  always  has  at  first 
soon  vanished.  The  incessant  attendance  required  by  him 
at  meetings  and  prayers  and  sermons  tended  inevitably  to 
formalism  and  hypocrisy.  He  began  to  be  suspected  of 
being  a  papist  at  heart,  on  account  of  the  penances  and 
ascetic  practices  which  he  endeavored  to  enforce.  Men 
declined  so  great  a  usurpation  over  their  consciences.  The 
fact  is,  Wesley  had  not  yet  come  to  that  crisis  in  his  life 
which  he  calls  his  "  conversion,"  and  which,  whatever  it  is 
called,  was  assuredly  the  turning-point  in  his  spiritual 
history,  transforming  him  from  a  fearful  servant  into  a 
confiding  and  rejoicing  child  of  God.  He  had  "  received 
the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear."  He  was  to  receive 
the  spirit  "  of  power,  and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind." 

His  sincerity  cannot  be  doubted  for  a  moment.  But 
it  was  the  sincerity  of  an  anxious  soul,  which  was  toiling 
by  painful  steps  and  slow  up  to  God  to  gain  his  favor ; 
not  the  sincere  service  of  a  grateful  soul  kindled  to  loving 
devotion  by  the  reception  of  God's  gift  of  grace.  The 
sacraments  which  he  administered  so  punctiliously  and 
so  often  were  to  him  the  badges  of  his  allegiance  to  God, 
intensifying  his  responsibility,  rather  than  the  witnesses 
of  God's  allegiance  to  him  in  the  impartation  of  his  help 
and  favor  which  they  declared  and  confirmed.  Hence  his 
spirit  was  legal  and  his  thought  self-centered.  When  he 
set  out   he  wrote  in  his  journal :    "  The    end    is    simply 


254  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  x. 

this :  to  save  our  souls ;  to  live  wholly  to  the  glory  of  God." 
He  was  looking  to  himself.  When  he  learned  to  forget 
himself  in  the  service  of  the  Master  who  gave  himself  for 
him,  then  he  became  the  man  of  power,  who  drew  the 
clamorous  crowd  about  him,  who  kindled  a  devotion  to  him- 
self which  a  century  has  not  abated,  and  who  awoke  a  move- 
ment of  renovation  and  spiritual  power  which  has  quick- 
ened the  life  of  English  Christendom  on  both  sides  of  the  sea. 
But  Wesley  in  America  and  Wesley  in  England  were 
two  different  beings.  It  was  well  for  himself  and  the 
colony  that  his  stay  in  Georgia  was  short.  The  chief  cause 
of  his  return  was  an  intolerant  interference  with  an  indi- 
vidual soul  which  the  commonest  prudence  should  have  ' 
taught  him  not  to  touch.  He  had  fallen  in  love  with 
a  niece  of  Causton,  an  agent  of  Oglethorpe,  a  man  very 
unpopular  by  reason  of  his  intolerance  and  overbearing 
demeanor.  She,  however,  though  a  devoted  spiritual  dis- 
ciple of  Wesley,  did  not  return  his  affection,  and  married 
another,  a  Mr.  Williamson.  Shortly  afterward  Wesley 
thought  he  saw  something  blamable  in  her  conduct,  re- 
buked her  in  such  manner  that  she  became  angry,  and 
then,  on  the  technical  ground  that  she  had  not  signified 
her  intention  to  commune,  and  on  the  moral  ground  that 
she  had  not  openly  declared  herself  repentant  of  her  fault 
(both  causes  within  the  letter  of  the  rubric),  he  forbade 
her  the  holy  communion.  Williamson  preferred  a  charge 
against  him  before  the  magistrates  of  defaming  his  wife 
and  repelling  her  without  cause  from  the  Lord's  table. 
Wesley  denied  the  first  charge,  and  denied  the  right  of 
the  secular  court  to  adjudicate  the  second.  The  grand 
jury  found  a  true  bill ;  but  twelve  of  their  number  pro- 
tested -that  the  indictment  was  a  malicious  attempt  to 
traduce  Wesley's  character.  It  is  quite  in  keeping  with 
Causton's  character  that  he  should  have  resented  the  cause 


GEORGE    WHirEFIELD  IN  GEORGIA.  255 

of  his  niece  in  this  manner.  The  whole  prosecution  was 
Hkely  enough  the  outgrowth  of  his  spite,  and  was  designed 
to  drive  from  the  colony  one  who  dared  to  oppose  his  will 
and  proved  an  obstacle  to  the  exercise  of  his  tyranny. 

Wesley  sought  to  be  tried  on  the  charge  of  defamation, 
the  only  charge  on  which  he  allowed  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  secular  court,  but  for  three  months  met  with  delay 
after  delay.  He  continued  his  labors,  and  even  multi- 
phed  them.  In  Savannah  and  the  surrounding  settlements 
he  held  services  in  Italian,  French,  and  German,  as  well 
as  in  English.  Weekly  eucharists,  public  catechisings,  in- 
formal prayer-meetings,  besides  constant  preachings,  filled 
all  his  hours.  But  the  whole  colony  was  stirred  with  the 
scandal.  Congregations  dwindled ;  and  at  last,  finding  no 
prospect  of  action  by  the  court,  and  no  prospect  of  useful- 
ness among  the  people,  Wesley  determined  to  leave.  He 
let  it  be  known  that  he  should  shortly  depart ;  but  he  went 
quietly  one  evening,  after  reading  the  Evening  Prayer, 
and,  reaching  Charleston,  sailed  for  England  December 
22,  1737,  having  been  in  America  a  year  and  nine  months. 

The  vessel  which  brought  Wesley  back  to  England 
passed  another  conveying  Whitefield  to  Georgia.  This 
distinguished  evangelist  had  just  been  ordered  deacon. 
He  had  known  Wesley  at  Oxford  while  a  servitor  at 
Pembroke  College,  and  had  become  thoroughly  imbued 
with  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  the  Methodists.  Out  of 
gratitude  and  attachment  to  those  who  had  awakened  his 
spiritual  nature  he  heeded  the  appeal  of  Wesley  for  help- 
ers. His  eloquence  was  already  recognized  in  England ; 
but,  notwithstanding  his  rising  popularity,  he  refused  the 
offers  of  preferment  pressed  upon  him,  and  sailed  for 
Georgia,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  trustees  and  with 
the  approval  of  Bishop  Gibson  and  Archbishop  Potter. 
He  embarked  the  last  of  December,   1737,  but  did  not 


256  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  x. 

reach  Savannah  until  the  beginning  of  May,  1738.  He 
found  religious  matters  in  a  state  of  chaos,  since  the  ser- 
vices of  the  church  had  been  suspended  by  the  removal 
of  an  unworthy  chaplain  who  had  had  charge  of  them  to 
South  Carolina.  In  much  weakness  of  body  he  began  his 
ministrations  with  all  Wesley's  vigor,  but  with  less  rigor 
of  discipline.  He  did  not  insist  on  immersing  infants,  and 
showed  less  austerity  and  more  geniality  in  his  intercourse 
with  the  people.  His  eloquence  drew  crowds  about  him, 
so  that  many  stood  without  the  doors  and  under  the 
windows  to  listen  to  his  preaching.  He  lived  in  perfect 
harmony  with  his  flock,  and  was  untiring  in  his  ministra- 
tions for  them.  He  visited  the  sick  every  day,  and  estab- 
lished several  schools  for  the  children.  On  Sundays  he 
read  prayers  and  expounded  one  of  the  lessons  for  the 
day  at  five  in  the  morning.  At  ten  and  three  o'clock  he 
read  prayers  and  preached.  At  seven  in  the  evening  he 
expounded  the  catechism  to  large  congregations  of  ser- 
vants. During  the  week  he  had  daily  morning  and  even- 
ing prayer  in  public,  and  gathered  the  people  privately  in 
his  own  house  for  instruction  and  worship  three  times  a 
week  besides.  He  strove  to  gain  access  to  the  Indians, 
but  with  little  success. 

He  was  especially  struck  with  the  forlorn  condition  of 
the  orphan  children  in  this  wilderness  settlement,  and 
formed  the  project  of  establishing  an  orphan  house  for 
their  support  and  instruction.  This  benevolent  scheme 
became  the  object  in  which  his  labors  in  Georgia  chiefly 
centered.  He  writes  in  his  journal :  "  For  want  of  a  house 
to  breed  them  up  in,  the  poor  little  ones  (for  whom  the 
trustees  had  endeavored  to  make  some  provision)  were 
tabled  out  here  and  there,  and,  besides  the  hurt  they  re- 
ceived by  bad  examples,  forgot  at  home  what  they  learned 
at  school.      Others  were  at  hard  service,  and  likely  to  have 


BETHESDA    ORPHAN  HOUSE  EOLXDED.  257 

no  education  at  all.  Upon  seeing  this  ...  I  thought  I 
could  not  better  show  my  regard  to  God  and  my  country 
than  by  getting  a  house  and  land  for  these  children,  where 
they  might  learn  to  labor,  read,  and  write,  and  at  the  same 
time  be  brought  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord."  He  at  once  began  the  nucleus  of  Bethesda  Col- 
lege, and  during  the  thirty  subsequent  years  of  his  life, 
though  "  in  journeyings  often,"  he  never  forgot  or  neglected 
this  institution.  In  all  he  collected  eighty  thousand  dol- 
lars for  it,  of  which  he  gave  sixteen  thousand  dollars  him- 
self.   The  institution  was  located  nine  miles  from  Savannah. 

Temporary  shelter  was  provided  for  the  orphans  of  the 
colony  by  Mr.  Habersham,  a  lay  reader  and  schoolmaster, 
while  the  permanent  buildings  were  in  course  of  construc- 
tion ;  and  free  instruction  was  also  offered  to  the  children 
of  the  colonists  who  were  not  orphans.  An  infirmary  was 
established,  and  the  sick  were  cared  for  by  an  experienced 
surgeon  without  charge. 

In  the  meantime  Whitefield  returned  to  England  three 
months  after  his  arrival  in  Georgia,  and  was  ordained 
priest  by  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  in  January,  1739,  in 
Christ  Church  Cathedral,  Oxford,  and  appointed  by  the 
trustees  of  the  colony  rector  of  Christ  Church  parish, 
Savannah.  He  remained  in  England  until  August,  preach- 
ing to  thousands  who  flocked  to  hear  him,  either  in  the 
churches  or,  when  these  were  denied  him,  on  the  moors 
and  commons  of  Kingswood  and  Moorfields  and  Black- 
heath.  Never  was  greater  enthusiasm  stirred  by  any 
man.  A  heart  so  humane  and  lips  so  eloquent  compelled  a 
homage  which  was  intensified  by  a  sense  of  personal 
obligation.  If  some  of  the  clergy  grew  imbittered,  hosts 
of  the  common  people  heard  him  gladly,  and  he  stirred 
their  hearts  as  the  heart  of  one  man.  He  was  not,  how- 
ever, turned  from  his  missionary  labor  by  his  mar\"elous 


258  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  x. 

evangelistic  success,  nor  was  he  as  yet  imbittered  against 
the  church.  He  was  constant  at  prayers  and  sacraments. 
He  gathered  a  thousand  pounds  for  his  orphanage,  and 
obtained  a  grant  of  five  hundred  acres  of  land  for  it ;  and 
when  he  sailed  in  August  for  America  he  carried  eight 
men  as  assistants  with  him.  His  practical  benevolence 
grew  but  stronger  in  the  heated  atmosphere  of  religious 
enthusiasm.  That  atmosphere  surrounded  him  every- 
where and  at  all  times. 

On  arriving  in  Philadelphia  from  England,  the  scenes 
of  London  were  repeated  in  Christ  Church;  and  in  New 
York,  where  Trinity  Church  shut  its  doors  to  him,  the 
meetings  in  the  fields  recalled  those  of  Kensington  Com- 
mon. Such  demands  were  made  upon  him  for  sermons 
that  though  he  had  landed  in  November,  1739,  he  only 
reached  Savannah  in  January,  1 740.  At  once  he  devoted 
himself  anew  to  his  beloved  orphan  house,  making  even 
the  interests  of  the  church  in  Savannah,  to  which  he  had 
been  appointed  rector,  subordinate  to  it,  though  he  at 
once  resumed  his  ministrations  in  that  place,  and  started 
to  build  a  church  for  his  parish.  He  returned  north  in  a 
few  months,  and  came  back  with  lay  assistants  for  various 
mechanical  trades,  with  provisions  and  clothing  for  his 
orphans,  and  with  five  hundred  pounds  for  the  institution. 
He  became  from  this  time  on  more  and  more  irregular  in 
conducting  the  services  of  the  church,  admitting  dissenters 
to  its  ministrations  and  curtailing  the  prayers.  The  fervor 
of  his  zeal  could  not  brook  the  bounds  of  rubrical  require- 
ments, and  he  was  inhibited  by  Commissary  Garden,  of 
South  CaroUna,  which  inhibition  he  failed  to  heed.  The 
importance  he  placed  on  his  view  of  the  new  birth,  and 
the  great  effects  which  he  wrought  by  preaching  it,  led 
him  to  denounce  those  who  opposed  or  failed  to  advocate 
it,  whether  authors  like  Law  and  Archbishop  Tillotson,  or 


BETHESDA    COLLEGE  RULE.  259 

the  living  clergy,  of  whatever  rank,  whose  preaching  fell 
short  of  his  doctrinal  standard.  He  fell  off  from  his  dear 
friend  Wesley  on  the  subject  of  Calvinism,  and  could  hold 
no  fellowship  with  an  Arminian  in  theology,  though  in 
practical  measures  and  methods  they  were  so  akin.  He 
became  more  and  more  of  an  enthusiast  of  untempered 
zeal.  It  was  impossible  that  one  who,  in  spite  of  his 
aberrations,  or  perchance  by  reason  of  them,  could  do  such 
great  things  could  be  confined  to  so  small  a  sphere  as  the 
little  colony  of  Georgia.  His  sense  of  power  became  the 
measure  of  his  duty,  and  henceforth  he  was  an  itinerant, 
making  frequent  visits  to  England,  where  his  old  influence 
revived,  and  preaching  also  from  time  to  time  throughout 
the  colonies  of  America,  with  a  power  as  magical  and 
effective  as  ever.  But  in  all  his  wanderings  he  never  lost 
sight  of  his  beloved  Bethesda  College.  He  gathered 
money  again  and  again  in  England  for  its  needs  during  all 
the  excitement  of  his  evangelistic  labors.  From  time  to 
time  he  visited  Georgia  and  devoted  himself  in  person  to 
the  orphan  school. 

By  1 742  the  great  dormitories,  workshops,  and  store- 
houses at  Bethesda  were  occupied  and  the  "  great  house  " 
nearly  completed.  The  services  of  a  Latin  master  were 
secured,  and  a  foundation  laid  "  in  the  name  of  our  dear 
Jesus  for  an  University  in  Georgia,"  to  use  Whitefield's 
own  phrase.  Thirty-nine  boys  and  fifteen  girls  were  sup- 
ported there,  and  some  had  already  been  sent  out  to  trades. 
The  establishment  had  a  strict  discipline,  and  was  some- 
what overcharged  with  a  religious  atmosphere.  An 
account  of  it  by  a  visitor  from  Boston  reads  as  follows: 

"  The  bell  rings  in  the  morning  at  sunrise  to  wake  the 
family.  When  the  children  arise  they  sing  a  short  hymn 
and  pray  by  themselves ;  then  they  go  down  and  wash, 
and  by  the  time  they  have  done  that   the  bell  calls  to 


26o  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  x. 

public  worship,  when  a  portion  of  Scripture  is  read  and 
expounded,  and  a  psalm  sung,  and  the  exercise  begun  and 
ended  with  prayer.  Then  they  breakfast,  and  afterward 
go,  some  to  their  trades,  and  the  rest  to  their  prayers  and 
schools.  At  noon  they  all  dine  in  the  same  room,  and 
have  comfortable  and  wholesome  diet  provided.  A  hymn 
is  sung  before  and  after  dinner;  then,  in  about  half  an 
hour,  to  school  again,  and  between  whiles  find  time  enough 
for  recreation.  A  little  after  sunset  the  bell  calls  to  public 
duty  again,  which  is  performed  in  the  same  manner  as  in 
the  morning.  After  that  they  sup,  and  are  attended  to 
bed  by  one  of  their  teachers,  who  then  pray  with  them,  as 
they  often  do  privately.  On  the  Sabbath  day  they  all 
dine  on  cold  meat,  provided  the  day  before,  that  none  may 
be  kept  from  public  worship,  which  is  attended  four  times 
a  day  in  summer  and  three  in  winter.  The  children  are 
kept  reading  between  whiles."  ^ 

This  founding  of  Bethesda  College  was  by  far  the  most 
interesting  and  valuable  act  of  Whitefield  in  Georgia.  In 
an  age  too  Httle  given  to  such  practical  benevolence,  and 
in  a  wilderness  settlement  so  remote  and  poor,  its  con- 
ception and  its  persistent  advocacy  go  far  to  balance  the 
irregular  and  intemperate  enthusiasm  of  many  of  his  min- 
istrations. With  every  temptation  to  forget  "  these  few 
sheep  in  the  wilderness,"  undistracted  by  the  popular 
frenzy  excited  by  his  surpassing  eloquence  wherever  he 
appeared,  he  showed  in  this  charitable  foundation  a  gen- 
uine enthusiasm  of  humanity.  Through  evil  report  and 
good  report,  amid  the  clamors  of  acrimonious  controversy, 
living,  as  it  were,  in  the  storm  and  whirlwind  of  religious 
excitement,  he  never  forgot  or  neglected  the  orphans, 
whom,  like  his  Master,  he  gathered  in  his  arms. 

1  Given  in  Perry's  "  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,"  vol.  i., 
P-  354- 


WHITEFIELD'S  DEATH.  26 1 

After  twenty-five  years  of  varied  fortune,  Whitefield 
determined  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  his  institution  and 
make  it  in  reahty  a  university  of  Georgia.  In  1 764  he 
petitioned  the  governor  and  council  for  a  grant  of  two 
thousand  acres  of  land,  in  order  to  make  "  provision  for 
the  education  of  persons  of  superior  rank,  who  thereby 
might  be  qualified  to  serve  their  king,  their  country,  and 
their  God,  either  in  church  or  state  "  ;  and  in  his  memorial 
he  showed  that  he  had  already  expended  twelve  thousand 
pounds  on  Bethesda.  His  friend  and  helper,  James  Ha- 
bersham, was  now  president  of  the  Upper  House  of  As- 
sembly, and  by  his  influence  the  governor's  indorsement 
was  obtained.  Though  the  necessity  of  reference  to  the 
home  authorities  entailed  delay,  the  result  was  at  last 
favorable. 

In  the  last  year  of  Whitefield's  life,  in  i  770,  the  govern- 
or's council  and  the  Assembly  attended  services  at  the 
chapel  of  the  orphan  house ;  and  Whitefield  preached, 
taking  as  his  text  Zechariah  iv.  10:  "  For  who  hath  de- 
spised the  day  of  small  things?  "  The  Rev.  Mr.  Ellington, 
who  had  had  a  most  successful  ministry  in  Augusta,  ac- 
cepted the  headship  of  the  enlarged  institution  on  White- 
field's  declaring  his  intention  of  having  "  the  stated  wor- 
ship of  the  seminary  agreeable  to  the  liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England."  The  work  prospered  under  him. 
The  death  of  Whitefield,  however,  in  the  same  year, 
greatly  impeded  the  development  he  had  so  earnestly 
labored  to  secure.  He  left  by  will  the  orphan  house  and 
all  his  possessions  in  Georgia  to  his  patroness,  the  Countess 
of  Huntingdon,  or,  in  case  of  her  death  previous  to  his 
own,  to  his  friend  Mr.  Habersham,  who  was  made  his 
executor.  Thus  in  death  as  in  life  he  kept  the  institution 
near  his  heart.  But  the  Revolution,  which  came  on  apace, 
wrought  the  ruin  of  his  great  enterprise.     The  inmates  of 


262  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  x. 

the  orphan  house  were  scattered,  the  revenue  ceased,  and 
the  buildings  were  destroyed  during  the  war.  Bethesda 
College  survives  only  as  a  grateful  memory  and  as  a  tribute 
to  the  practical  benevolence  of  one  of  the  greatest  preach- 
ers since  the  days  of  St.  Bernard. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  this  humane  man,  whose  heart 
beat  so  warmly  for  the  orphans  and  the  rising  generation 
of  whites,  should  have  favored  the  demands  of  the  colo- 
nists for  the  repeal  of  the  law  forbidding  the  introduction 
of  negro  slavery.  He  parted  from  Wesley  in  applied  as 
well  as  in  theoretical  Christianity.  Instead  of  regarding 
slavery,  like  his  great  prototype,  as  "  the  sum  of  all  vil- 
lainies," he  maintained,  from  the  Old  Testament,  that  to 
keep  slaves  was  lawful ;  that  to  introduce  them  into  Georgia 
would  bring  them  within  the  reach  of  the  means  of  grace, 
and  make  them  partakers  of  a  liberty  more  precious  than 
that  of  the  body.  He  did  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  use 
his  influence  for  the  movement  which  brought  slaverj- 
into  the  colony,  declaring  that  "  to  require  the  colonists 
to  cultivate  the  soil  in  a  hot  climate  without  negro  labor 
was  little  better  than  to  tie  their  legs  and  bid  them  walk." 
Thus  his  pity  for  the  bodies  of  the  colonists  and  his  com- 
passion for  the  souls  of  the  negroes  led  him  to  approve  a 
fatal  policy  which  it  has  taken  a  century  to  reverse. 

When  Whitefield  took  up  his  itinerant  life  it  became 
necessary  to  supply  his  place  as  rector  of  Christ  Church, 
Savannah.  The  appointments  to  this  post  were  most  un- 
fortunate. The  first,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Norris,  formerly  of  Fred- 
rica,  stayed  but  a  short  time,  and  was  much  calumniated. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Metcalf,  of  Lincolnshire,  appointed  by  the 
trustees  to  succeed  him,  died  before  entering  on  his  duties. 
The  Rev.  Christopher  Orton,  his  successor,  died  within 
a  year.  In  July,  1743,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Bosomworth 
was   licensed    to  perform   all    religious   and   ecclesiastical 


CHURCH  PROGRESS  SLOW  AND  MEAGER.  263 

oflfices  in  the  colony.  He  went  to  Fredrica,  which  he 
found  especially  destitute  of  religious  instruction,  and 
where,  for  a  short  time,  he  showed  an  exemplary  religious 
zeal.  Unfortunately,  the  year  after  his  arrival,  he  married 
an  Indian  woman,  who,  though  a  Christian,  involved  him 
in  an  Indian  plot  to  seize  the  English  possessions.  He 
backed  her  claim  to  the  lands  on  which  Savannah  was 
situated,  and  to  enforce  it  appeared  in  full  canonicals  with 
her  (she  being  costumed  as  an  Indian  princess)  before 
the  authorities.  An  Indian  outbreak  was  the  result,  and 
the  revolt  was  only  terminated  by  the  arrest  and  imprison- 
ment of  the  recreant  priest  and  his  bride.  He  was  dis- 
missed from  his  post  by  the  Venerable  Society,  which  had 
appointed  him ;  but  the  scandal  of  this  perversion  of  his 
sacred  office  continued  to  work  mischief  in  the  religious 
affairs  of  the  colony. 

He  was  succeeded  in  1746  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Zouber- 
buhler,  son  of  a  Swiss  pastor  in  South  Carolina,  who 
labored  faithfully  for  twenty  years.  He  reclaimed  many 
to  the  church  who  had  wandered  from  it,  and  after  three 
years  went  to  England  for  more  laborers,  stating  to  the 
Venerable  Society  that  "  there  were  about  three  thousand  / 
persons  in  Georgia,  and  no  other  minister  of  the  Church  I 
of  England  in  the  province."  It  was  not  until  1750  that 
the  church  at  Savannah,  which  was  begun  in  1740,  was 
finished  ;  and  then,  in  a  population  of  eight  hundred,  the 
number  of  communicants  was  only  sixty-five.  It  was  in 
this  year,  also,  that  the  settlers  built  a  small  church  at 
Augusta,  under  cover  of  the  fort ;  and  the  Rev.  Jonathan 
Copp,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  was  appointed  to  the 
cure,  which  he  served  faithfully,  in  the  face  of  many  diffi- 
culties and  dangers,  until  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Frink  in  i  766.  These  two  churches,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  apart,  were  the  only  two  in  Georgia  in  i  769,  though 


264  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.         [Chap.  x. 

in  1758  the  province  had  been  divided  by  an  act  of  As- 
sembly into  eight  parishes,  and  an  annual  stipend  of 
twenty- five  pounds  sterling  allowed  to  the  clergy  officiat- 
ing in  each.  No  leader  had  given  elTect  to  this  enactment, 
and  the  condition  of  the  church  in  Georgia  was  weaker 
than  in  any  other  province  of  North  America.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Frink  gives  this  melancholy  account  of  the  settlers  at 
that  time : 

"  They  seem  in  general  to  have  but  very  little  more 
knowledge  of  a  Saviour  than  the  aboriginal  natives.  Many 
hundreds  of  poor  people,  both  parents  and  children,  in  the 
interior  of  the  province  have  no  opportunity  of  being  in- 
structed in  the  principles  of  Christianity,  or  even  in  the 
being  of  a  God,  any  further  than  nature  dictates."  ^ 

Samuel  Frink  and  Edward  Ellington  were  the  two  most 
distinguished  missionaries  in  Georgia,  and  no  exertion  on 
their  part  was  wanting  to  supply  the  spiritual  destitution 
around  them.  When  Frink  was  appointed  by  the  gov- 
ernor to  Christ  Church,  Savannah,  Ellington  succeeded 
him  at  Augusta.  It  was  his  practice  to  leave  Augusta  on 
Monday,  and,  after  a  journey  of  forty  miles,  to  hold  service 
on  the  three  following  days  at  three  places  ten  miles  distant 
from  one  another,  and  to  give  the  last  two  days  of  the  week 
to  his  work  at  home.  Frink  was  equally  faithful,  and  thus 
it  was  that  at  Savannah,  Fredrica,  and  Augusta  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  church  w^ere  seldom  intermitted,  and  that  the 
scattered  families  removed  from  these  centers  were  not  left 
wholly  without  religious  ministrations. 

Ellington,  as  we  have  seen,  left  Augusta  to  take  charge 
of  Whitefield's  orphan  house,  when  once  assured  that  the 
services  should  be  according  to  the  liturgy  of  the  Church 
of  England.  This  must  have  been  a  consolation  as  well 
as  an  astonishment  to  his  fellow-missionary,  Frink,  who 
1  "  Digest  of  S.  P.  G.  Records,  1 701-1892,"  third  edition,  p.  28. 


CHURCH  EXTERMINATED   BY  THE  REVOLUTION.   265 

had  written  to  the  Venerable  Society,  two  years  before, 
that  "  Whitefield  had  done  more  mischief  in  Georgia  by 
the  disorder  and  confusion  which  he  had  created  than  he 
could  undo  in  three  centuries,  and  made  his  orphan  house 
a  nest  for  the  enemies  of  the  church."  Ellington  was 
succeeded  at  Augusta  by  the  Rev.  J.  Seymour,  of  whose 
labors  there  is  little  record,  but  whose  sufiferings  and  per- 
sistent efforts  to  continue  his  work  during  the  Revolution- 
ary War  called  forth  the  sympathy  and  admiration  even 
of  those  whom  he  opposed.  He  was  a  stanch  loyalist,  and 
after  sufTering  "  the  loss  of  all  things,"  escaped  to  Florida, 
and  ministered  there  until  the  Spaniards  took  possession 
in  1783. 

The  church  in  Georgia  disappeared  during  the  Revolu- 
tion, having  never  made  a  strong  impression  in  the  colony, 
although  the  Venerable  Society  had  assisted  in  maintain- 
ing thirteen  missionaries  within  its  borders,  and  among 
them  the  two  Wesleys  and  Whitefield,  who  elsewhere 
wrought  the  most  powerful  evangelistic  work  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

SUMMARY    OF   THE    COLONIAL   CHURCH    AND    ITS 
LESSONS. 

Before  recounting  the  history  of  the  formation  of  the 
national  church  out  of  the  remains  of  the  colonial  churches 
it  will  be  well  to  recall  certain  features  of  the  past,  in  order 
to  understand  the  movement  based  upon  it.  The  advan- 
tages which  the  church  in  the  colonies  enjoyed  were  all 
contained  in  the  countenance  and  aid  given  it  by  the 
Venerable  Society  (S.  P.  G.).  From  the  government  of 
England  it  received  only  the  doubtful  favor  of  a  quasi- 
Establishment  in  a  few  provinces.  This  Establishment, 
enforced  by  the  patronage  of  the  royal  governor  and  his 
council,  gave  the  church  a  special  prominence  and  social 
standing  in  certain  communities.  These  communities, 
however,  were  largely  composed  of  dissenters,  who  held 
to  their  views  with  a  tenacity  strengthened  by  their  recoil 
from  the  English  Church  at  home,  and  the  Establishment 
thus  provoked  opposition  as  well  as  conciliated  favor.  The 
Establishment,  moreover,  did  not  bring  with  it  established 
revenues.  It  merely  gave  power  to  raise  revenues  by 
taxation  for  the  benefit  of  the  church  established.  This 
not  unnaturally  provoked  animosity,  and  the  benefit  to 
the  church  was  limited.  The  experience  of  the  provinces 
where  the  Establishment  was  most  fully  recognized  showed 
another  side  as  well.  These  colonies  became  a  refuge 
and  resort  for  the  thriftless  and  profligate  clergy  of  Eng- 

266 


EVILS   OF  STATE  PATRONAGE.  267 

land,  who  were  glad  to  escape  from  their  debts  and 
difficulties  at  home,  and  whose  friends  were  so  happy  to 
get  rid  of  them  that  they  aided  in  securing  for  them 
assured  positions  and  salaries  on  the  distant  continent. 
Of  course  such  men  were  a  burden  and  not  a  benefit  to 
the  church's  life  and  reputation.  Their  carelessness  and 
the  scandals  to  which  they  gave  rise  were  powerful  in- 
centives to  the  growth  of  Methodism  while  that  earnest 
body  was  still  affiliated  with  the  church.  They  united 
the  Presbyterian  and  Baptist  communions  to  the  tenacious 
preservation  of  those  principles  and  forms  in  which  they 
had  found  the  realities  of  a  religious  life;  realities  which 
the  worldliness,  to  say  the  least,  of  these  ecclesiastical  ad- 
venturers failed  either  to  exhibit  in  themselves  or  admin- 
ister to  others.  The  church  was  more  numerous  in  the 
provinces  where  it  was  established,  but  its  life  was  not  as 
healthful  or  as  stable  as  where  it  was  deprived  of  all  state 
aid.  The  sad  experience  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  as 
contrasted  with  the  much  smaller  church  communities  in 
Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania,  shows  most  unmistakably 
the  mischief  which  may  come  of  political  patronage  in 
founding  the  church  in  new  communities. 

Another  lesson  of  vital  importance  is  shown  in  the 
history  of  the  colonial  churches.  It  is  the  crass  folly  of 
trying  to  propagate  a  system  by  mutilating  it.  The  colo- 
nial churches  were  acephalous.  No  bishop  could  be  had, 
or  even  borrowed  for  a  season ;  and  moral  discipline  and 
ecclesiastical  order  were  without  any  efficient  head.  The 
incredible  discomfort  of  a  voyage  to  Europe  in  those  days, 
and  the  enormous  expense  of  it  to  men  of  moderate  means, 
put  a  check  upon  the  growth  of  a  native  clergy,  which 
experience  proved  to  be  far  more  valuable  than  an  im- 
ported ministry.     A  sea- voyage,  with  its  dangers  and  dis- 


268  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  xi. 

comforts,  which  was  an  imperative  necessity  for  every 
priest  and  deacon  seeking  holy  orders,  was  an  impediment 
to  the  progress  of  the  church  whose  hindrance  it  is  impos- 
sible to  compute.  The  lack,  too,  in  relation  to  the  clergy, 
of  any  competent  or  complete  theological  education  was  a 
serious  drawback  to  the  church.  The  colleges  of  Harvard, 
Yale,  and  Princeton  had  been  early  founded  to  raise  up  a 
learned  clergy  for  the  Congregationalists  and  the  Presby- 
terians. It  was  not  until  within  thirty  years  of  the  Revo- 
lution that  King's  College  and  the  Academy  and  College 
of  Philadelphia  were  started,  where  churchmen  practically 
preponderated ;  and  the  College  of  William  and  Mary  in 
Virginia  languished  on  account  of  the  Establishment,  which 
cast  so  dark  a  shadow  on  everything  pertaining  to  the 
church  in  that  colony.  To  graduate  at  Yale  or  Harvard 
was  to  intensify,  perhaps,  one's  churchmanship  by  reason 
of  reaction ;  but  these  colleges  did  not  generate  an  at- 
mosphere favorable  to  the  development  of  an  PZpiscopal 
clergy,  or  furnish  the  equipment  requisite  for  their  calling. 
The  attempts  to  obtain  bishops  were  constant,  and  came 
from  all  parts  of  the  colonies.  The  need  was  recognized 
in  England.  As  early  as  1638  Laud  had  set  on  foot  a 
scheme  for  sending  a  bishop  to  New  England.  The  Ven- 
erable Society  submitted  a  memorial  to  the  c]ueen  in  i  709, 
urging  the  appointment  of  a  bishop  for  the  American  colo- 
nies, which  memorial  it  renewed  four  years  later,  when  the 
queen  seemed  so  favorable  that  only  her  sudden  death 
put  an  end  to  the  project.  The  application  was  renewed 
in  a  memorial  in  17 15  to  George  I.,  for  four  bishoprics  for 
America,  two  for  the  islands  and  two  for  the  continent. 
These  latter  two  were  to  be  located  at  Burlington,  N.  J., 
and  Williamsburg,  Va.  Means  for  raising  an  income  of  a 
thousand  pounds  for  each  see  were  suggested  and  urged, 
on  the  ground  that  the  society  had  already  expended  six 


JJV  AMERICAN  EPISCOPATE   FAVORED.  269 

hundred  pounds  for  the  purchase  of  house  and  land  for  a 
bishop's  residence  in  BurUngton.  The  struggle,  however, 
of  the  House  of  Hanover  to  establish  itself  against  the 
House  of  Stuart  absorbed  at  this  time  the  attention  and 
interest  of  the  crown  ;  and  no  consideration  could  be  given 
to  supplying  a  complete  church  order  to  distant  colonists, 
many  of  whose  clergy  were  suspected  of  favoring  the  cause 
of  the  Pretender.  Thus,  under  Queen  Anne  and  King 
George,  these  well-considered  plans  miscarried,  as  had  the 
attempt  in  1672,  under  Charles  H.,  to  send  out  as  Bishop 
of  Virginia  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander  Murray,  who  had  been 
a  companion  of  the  king  in  his  exile.  Such,  also,  had 
been  the  fate  of  the  project  of  Dr.  Sharpe,  Archbishop  of 
York  in  171 1,  who,  together  with  the  Bishops  of  Bristol 
and  St.  David's,  made  a  proposal  to  the  Lower  House  of 
Convocation  "  concerning  bishops  to  be  provided  for  the 
plantations."  The  subject,  however,  did  not  cease  to 
occupy  the  thought  of  the  episcopate.  Archbishop  Ten- 
ison,  at  his  death  in  1715,  bequeathed  a  thousand  pounds 
to  the  Venerable  Society  "  toward  the  settlement  of  two 
bishops,  one  for  the  continent  and  the  other  for  the  isles  of 
America";  and  in  1718  an  unknown  benefactor  gave  the 
society  a  thousand  pounds  for  the  same  purpose,  which  sum 
was  doubled  shortly  after  by  gifts  from  Mr.  Dugald  Camp- 
bell and  Lady  Elizabeth  Hastings.  Much  later  on,  in 
1 750,  a  united  and  sustained  effort  was  made  to  establish  an 
American  episcopate  by  Bishops  Seeker  of  Oxford,  Sher- 
lock of  London,  and  Butler  of  Bristol ;  and  as  by  that  time 
much  hostility  had  arisen  in  America  on  the  part  of  the 
dissenting  colonists  against  the  project.  Bishop  Butler,  the 
celebrated  author  of  the  "  Analogy,"  prepared  an  expla- 
nation and  statement  of  the  scheme,  to  allay  all  possible 
misapprehension  of  it.  The  statement  declared  \h2X,  first, 
no  coercive  power  over  the  laity  was  desired,  but  only 


270  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xi. 

power  to  regulate  the  behavior  of  the  clergy  who  were  in 
Episcopal  orders ;  second,  that  no  share  in  the  temporal 
government  was  desired  for  bishops ;  tJiird,  that  the  main- 
tenance of  the  bishops  was  not  to  be  at  the  charge  of  the 
colonies ;  fourth,  that  no  bishops  were  to  be  settled  where 
the  government  was  in  the  hands  of  dissenters,  as  in  New 
England,  but  that  they  should  only  have  authority  to 
ordain  and  discipline  the  clergy  of  such  Church  of  England 
congregations  as  might  be  among  them,  and  to  confirm 
the  lay  members  thereof.  It  was,  however,  too  late  for 
any  such  scheme  to  be  carried  into  effect.  The  opposition 
of  the  colonists  had  by  this  time  introduced  a  political  ele- 
ment into  the  question,  and  no  prime  minister  could  conceive 
it  expedient  to  embroil  his  government  with  it. 

The  interest  awakened  in  the  minds  of  the  English 
dignitaries  was  not  unshared  by  the  colonial  clergy.  It 
was  rather  stimulated  by  their  petitions  and  representa- 
tions. Commissary  Bray,  of  Maryland,  had,  after  his  short 
visitation  in  America  in  i  700,  urged  the  sending  out  of  a 
bishop  to  that  province,  and  projected  a  plan  of  raising  by 
private  contributions  enough  to  buy  a  plantation  in  Mary- 
land for  his  support.  The  Venerable  Society,  among 
its  earliest  acts,  tried  to  secure  a  Scotch  bishop  as 
suffragan  to  the  Bishop  of  London  for  that  purpose, 
which  effort  failed  by  reason  of  the  advanced  age  and 
the  small  number  of  the  Scotch  bishops.  John  Talbot, 
Keith's  companion  in  his  itinerant  journey  of  preliminary 
observation,  wrote  in  1 702  to  the  society  just  founded : 
"  There  are  earnest  addresses  from  divers  parts  of  the 
country,  and  islands  adjacent,  for  a  suffragan  to  visit 
the  several  churches,  ordain  some,  confirm  others,  and 
bless  all;"  and  as  he  began,  so  he  continued  his  life 
long.  In  1 704  he  wrote  to  Keith,  nominating  a  clergy- 
man  fit  for   the  place,   and   declared   that   if   the   queen 


INDIVIDUAL   REQUESTS  FOR   BISHOPS.  27 1 

understood  the  necessities  of  the  case  she  would  allow  a 
thousand  pounds  per  annum  rather  than  so  many  souls 
should  suffer.  Again,  in  1716,  he  sent  a  most  caustic 
complaint,  in  which  he  contrasted  apostolic  alertness  with 
the  government's  delay,  saying :  "  When  the  apostles 
heard  that  Samaria  had  received  the  Word  of  God,  im- 
mediately they  sent  out  two  of  the  chiefs,  Peter  and 
John;  .  .  .  they  did  not  stay  for  a  secular  design  of  sal- 
ary. But  we  have  been  here  these  twenty  years,  calling 
till  our  hearts  ache,  and  ye  own  'tis  the  call  and  cause  of 
God,  and  yet  ye  have  not  heard,  or  have  not  answered, 
and  that's  all  one.  There's  a  nolo  episcopari  only  for  poor 
America." 

The  call  for  the  episcopate  was  not  confined  to  the  iso- 
lated cry  of  individual  clergymen.  In  1 705  a  memorial 
was  addressed  to  the  archbishops  and  bishops,  from  a  con- 
vocation of  fourteen  clergymen  at  Burlington,  N.  J.,  pray- 
ing for  the  presence  and  assistance  of  a  suffragan  bishop, 
and  stating  the  urgent  reasons  therefor.  Soon  afterward 
Governor  Nicholson,  of  Virginia,  wrote  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  "  that  unless  a  bishop  be  sent,  in  a  short 
time  the  Church  of  England  will  diminish  rather  than  in- 
crease in  North  America."  In  fact,  so  much  attention 
was  called  to  the  subject  in  England  about  this  time  that 
it  became  a  topic  of  general  conversation  and  a  matter  of 
banter  to  Dean  Swift  (we  can  scarcely  deem  it  more),  who 
writes  to  his  friend,  Colonel  Hunter,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed lieutenant-governor  of  Virginia,  and  became  after- 
ward governor  of  New  York,  that  "  he  must  hasten  to  get 
him  his  Virginia  bishopric,  or  he  will  be  compelled  to  go 
to  Ireland  with  Addison."  This  widespread  attention  to 
the  subject  was  not  allowed  to  fade  away  out  of  sight. 
From  all  parts  of  the  colonies  the  cry  and  call  came  con- 
stantl}',  as  well  as  from  New  Jersey  and  Virginia. 


2  72  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  xi. 

In  I  724  Samuel  Johnson,  the  distinguished  missionary 
of  Connecticut,  tlien  but  recently  converted  to  the  church, 
urged  the  subject  upon  the  Bishop  of  London,  in  view  of 
the  fact  "  that  a  considerable  number  of  young  gentlemen, 
of  the  best  educated  among  us,  for  want  of  episcopal 
ordination,  decline  the  ministry,  unwilling  to  expose  them- 
selves to  the  dangers  of  the  seas  and  distempers ;  so  that 
the  fountain  of  all  our  misery  is  the  want  of  a  bishop,  for 
whom  there  are  many  thousands  of  souls  in  this  country 
who  impatiently  long  and  pray."  This  prixate  petition 
was  followed  up  the  next  year  by  a  memorial  of  six  of  the 
New  England  clergy  to  the  Venerable  Society,  praying 
for  an  orthodox  and  loyal  bishop.  One  of  the  signers  of 
this  memorial,  the  Rev.  James  Honeyman,  of  Rhode  Island, 
addressed  as  well  a  personal  communication  to  the  Bishop 
of  London,  stating  many  and  grave  reasons  why  the  mat- 
ter should  be  attended  to.  The  vestries  and  congregations 
were  zealous  as  well  as  the  clergy.  In  1718  a  petition 
was  signed  by  order  of  the  vestries  of  Christ  Church, 
Philadelphia,  and  St.  Mary's,  Burlington,  as  also  later 
by  many  of  the  laity  in  Maryland,  recounting  the  bur- 
dens entailed  on  the  church  by  this  lack :  "  For  want 
of  episcopacy  being  established  among  us,  and  that  there 
has  never  been  any  bishop  sent  to  visit  us,  our  churches 
remain  unconsecrated,  our  children  are  grown  up  and 
cannot  be  confirmed,  .  .  .  our  clergy  sometimes  under 
doubts  cannot  be  resolved.  But  more  especially  .  .  . 
the  vacancies  which  daily  happen  in  our  ministry  cannot 
be  supplied  for  a  considerable  time  from  England, 
whereby  many  congregations  are  not  only  become  des- 
olate, and  the  light  of  the  gospel  therein  extinguished, 
but  great  encouragement  is  thereby  given  to  sectaries  of 
all  sorts,  which  abound  and  increase  among  us." 

The  South  added  her  voice  to  that  of  the  Northern  and. 


COMBINED  ACTION   TO   SECURE   BISHOPS.  273 

Middle  Colonies.  In  reply  to  many  hitherto  fruitless  ap- 
plications, the  Bishop  of  London  empowered  the  clergy  of 
Maryland  to  nominate  one  of  their  number  for  the  office  of 
suffragan ;  which  they  proceeded  to  do,  naming  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Colebatch,  a  man  every  way  fit  for  the  work.  The 
legislature,  however,  interfered,  and  forbade  the  nominee 
to  leave  the  province.  The  consecrated  Clement  Hall, 
of  North  Carolina,  added  his  plea  to  the  general  voice. 
At  last,  in  1766,  certain  prominent  clergy  of  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Connecticut  (among  whom  were  Dr. 
Auchmuty,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York;  Dr. 
Chandler  of  Elizabethtown,  N.  J.  ;  President  Cooper  of 
King's  College,  New  York;  Samuel  Seabury,  afterward 
first  Bishop  of  Connecticut  and  the  first  in  the  United 
States ;  Dr.  Inglis,  later  first  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia ;  and 
the  distingushed  presbyter,  Abraham  Beach  of  Connecti- 
cut) formed  a  voluntary  convocation  to  meet  once  a  year 
"  to  use  their  joint  influence  and  endeavors  to  obtain  the 
happiness  of  bishops,  and  to  support  the  church  against 
the  unreasonable  opposition  given  to  it  in  the  colonies,  and 
to  cultivate  and  improve  a  good  understanding  and  union 
with  each  other."  This  convocation  addressed  a  letter  to 
the  Venerable  Society,  urging  "  as  an  incontestable  argu- 
ment for  the  necessity  of  American  bishops"  the  fact 
"  that  not  less  than  one  out  of  five  who  have  gone  home 
for  holy  orders  from  the  Northern  Colonies  have  perished 
in  the  attempt." 

This  letter  was  followed  hi  i  'j^']  by  Dr.  Chandler's 
"  Appeal  to  the  Public  in  Favor  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  America,"  which,  as  we  have  already  noted  in  the 
account  of  the  colonial  church  in  New  Jersey,  produced 
such  widespread  controversy.  The  subject  had  now  passed 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  church.  The  public  papers  were 
full  of  it.     The  press  of  Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadel- 


2  74  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xi. 

phia  teemed  with  communications  and  invectives  attacking 
the  church  in  a  most  uncompromising  manner.  Answers 
appeared  as  caustic  as  the  attacks.  Provost  William 
Smith  of  the  Academy  and  College  of  Philadelphia,  and 
Dr.  Chandler  of  New  Jersey,  wrote  in  an  able  and  digni- 
fied manner.  The  nature  of  the  anonymous  papers  may 
be  judged  from  their  titles:  "A  Whip  for  the  American 
Whig,"  "  A  Kick  for  the  Whipper,"  and  others  like  them. 
The  cause  of  such  violent  opposition  is  not  far  to  seek.  It 
came  from  that  alliance  between  church  and  state  in  Eng- 
land which  made  bishops  government  officers.  Th-fc  dread 
of  ecclesiastical  tyranny  backed  by  the  strong  arm  of  the 
law,  however  unreasonable  in  view  of  the  statements  made 
in  Chandler's  "  Appeal,"  was  the  motive-power  of  the 
opposition,  rather  than  dislike  of  episcopacy,  though  that 
was  intense  enough.  This  even  influenced  the  House  of 
Burgesses  of  Virginia,  whose  members  were  for  the  most 
part  churchmen,  to  pass,  in  1771,  a  vote  of  thanks  to 
those  members  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  who  had  opposed 
and  defeated  a  project  to  address  the  crown  in  favor  of  an 
American  episcopate.  The  controversy  which  this  action 
aroused  between  the  Northern  clergy  and  those  of  Virginia 
brought  out  the  distinct  statement  of  the  latter  that  they 
were  not  opposed  to  an  American  episcopate,  if  "  intro- 
duced at  a  proper  time,  by  proper  authorities,  and  in  a 
proper  manner."  Such  was  the  opposition  of  churchmen. 
The  intense  dread  of  Puritans  and  Presbyterians,  we  learn 
from  their  own  statements.  In  1 768  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives,  addressing  its  London  agent, 
wrote  by  the  hand  of  Samuel  Adams  as  follows :  "  The 
establishment  of  a  Protestant  episcopate  in  America  is 
very  zealously  contended  for.  .  .  .  We  hope  in  God  such 
an  establishment  may  never  take  place  in  America ;  we 
desire   you    would   strenuously   oppose   it.     The   revenue 


PURITAN  AND  PRESBYTERIAN  OBJECTIONS.       275 

raised  in  America,  for  aught  we  can  tell,  may  be  as  con- 
stitutionally applied  toward  the  support  of  prelacy  as  of 
soldiers  or  pensioners." 

John  Adams  testifies  that  "  fear  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land contributed  as  much  as  any  other  cause  to  arrest 
the  attention  not  only  of  the  inquiring  mind,  but  of  the 
common  people,  and  urge  them  to  close  thinking  on  the 
constitutional  authority  of  Parliament  over  the  colonies." 
"  The  objection  was  not  only  to  the  office  of  a  bishop, 
though  that  was  dreaded,  but  to  the  authority  of  Parlia- 
ment on  which  it  must  be  founded.  The  reasoning  was 
this :  There  is  no  power  less  than  Parliament  which  can 
create  bishops  in  America.  But  if  Parliament  can  erect 
dioceses  and  appoint  bishops,  they. may  introduce  the 
whole  hierarchy,  establish  tithes,  establish  religion,  forbid 
dissenters,  make  schism  heresy,  impose  penalties  extending 
to  life  and  limb  as  well  as  to  liberty  and  property."  ^ 

From  1766  to  1775  the  non-Episcopal  churches  of  New 
England,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania  com- 
bined in  "  a  plan  of  union  "  "  for  preserving  their  religious 
liberty,"  and  met  annually  for  that  purpose.  They  be- 
lieved that  to  suppress  an  American  episcopate  was  one 
of  the  most  indispensable  steps  for  maintaining  their  own 
independence.  From  a  letter  appended  to  the  records  of 
this  body  we  learn  fully  their  sentiments  and  apprehen- ' 
sions.  After  alluding  to  the  effort  to  obtain  an  American 
bishop,  the  communication  proceeds  as  follows : 

"  Nor  do  we  envy  the  Episcopal  churches  the  privileges 
of  a  bishop  for  the  purposes  of  ordination,  confirmation, 
and  inspecting  the  morals  of  their  clergy,  provided  they 
have  no  kind  of  superiority  over,  nor  power  any  way  to 
affect  the  civil  or  religious  interests  of  other  denomina- 

1  See  "  Works  of  John  Adams,"  especially  vol.  viii.,  p.  184,  and  vol.  x., 
p.  185. 


276  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  xi. 

tions.  ...  It  is  alleged  that  no  other  than  the  above- 
hinted  moderate  episcopacy  is  desired  or  designed ;  yet 
should  it  not  be  fixed  by  parliamentary  authority,  we 
have  no  security  that  matters  will  be  carried  no  further. 
.  .  .  Gentlemen  acquainted  with  the  law  inform  us  that  a 
bishop  is  a  public  minister  of  state,  known  in  the  common 
law  of  England.  .  .  .  Might  he  not  plead  .  .  .  that  the 
common  law  of  England  is  his  birthright,  and  that  the 
laws  in  force  before  the  settling  of  the  colonies  were 
brought  thither  and  took  place  with  the  first  settlers? 
What  is  to  hinder  him  to  claim  all  the  powers  exercised 
by  Archbishop  Laud  and  his  ecclesiastical  courts?  .  .  . 
A  covetous,  tyrannical,  and  domineering  prelate,  or  his 
chancellor,  would  always  have  it  in  their  power  to  harass 
our  country,  and  make  our  lives  bitter  by  fines,  imprison- 
ments, and  lawless  severity." 

At  a  meeting  of  this  Convention  at  Elizabethtown  in 
1768,  another  letter  was  reported  and  approved  which 
shows  that  the  same  apprehension  was  rife.  "  It  is  very 
evident,"  it  says,  "  it  is  not  that  harmless  and  inoffensive 
bishop  which  is  designed  for  us,  or  the  missionaries  among 
us  request;  and  therefore  we  cannot  but  be  apprehensive 
of  the  danger  from  the  proposed  episcopate,  however 
plausible  the  scheme  may  be  represented.  We  all  know 
the  jealousy  of  the  bishops  in  England  concerning  their 
own  power  and  dignity  suffering  by  the  example  of  such 
a  mutilated  bishop  in  America;  and  we  also  know  the 
force  of  a  British  act  of  Parliament,  and  have  good  reason 
to  dread  the  establishment  of  British  courts  among  us. 
Should  they  claim  the  right  of  holding  these  courts,  and 
of  exercising  the  power  belonging  to  their  office  by  the 
common  law  of  England  (which  is  esteemed  the  birthright 
of  a  British  subject),  we  could  have  no  counterbalance  to 
this  enormous  power  in  our  colonies,  where  we  have  no 


POPULAR   OPPOSITION  TO  BISHOPS.  277 

nobility  or  proper  courts  to  check  the  dangerous  exertions 
of  their  authority;  and  where  our  governors  and  judges 
may  be  the  needy  dependents  of  a  prime  minister,  and 
therefore  afraid  to  disobhge  a  person  who  is  sure  to  be 
supported  by  the  whole  bench  of  bishops  in  England :  so 
that  our  civil  liberties  appear  to  us  to  be  in  immediate 
danger  from  such  an  establishment.-" 

The  sudden  collapse  of  all  such  opposition  after  the 
Revolution  had  dissevered  the  colonies  from  the  mother- 
land shows  that  the  popular  objection  to  the  introduction 
of  bishops  was  chiefly  political.  It  bore  none  the  less 
hardly  on  the  church  on  that  account.  Had  there  been 
any  wise  prevision  on  the  part  of  the  governing  powers  in 
England,  bishops  would  have  been  granted  long  before 
any  organized  remonstrance  could  have  arisen.  In  certain 
colonies  bishops  would  have  been  cordially  welcomed  ;  and 
these  could  have  exercised  sufficient  spiritual  jurisdiction 
from  such  centers  as  to  have  insured  the  growth  and  purity 
of  the  church  at  large.  The  predominant  conception  of 
the  episcopate  at  that  time  was,  however,  largely  Erastian. 
There  was  no  proper  apprehension  of  it  as  a  missionary 
force.  Men's  thoughts  concerning  it  could  not  be  dissev- 
ered from  the  station  and  revenues  which  pertained  to  it 
in  England,  where  bishops  were  spiritual  lords,  members 
of  the  Upper  House,  and  in  possession  of  large  incomes 
derived  from  ancient  endowments.  A  print  of  the  period 
illustrates  the  popular  conception.  A  crowd  is  depicted 
shoving  from  the  wharf  a  ship  with  a  bishop  in  robes 
clinging  to  the  shrouds.  A  large  episcopal  coach  is 
prominent  on  the  dock,  against  which  a  miter  and  a  crosier 
rest.  The  mob  are  exclaiming,  "  No  lords,  spiritual  or 
temporal,  in  New  England!"  Friend  and  foe  alike  were 
possessed  of  the  idea  that  the  office  involved  the  trappings 
of  worldly  state.     All  efiforts  to  secure  an  American  bishop 


278  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  xi. 

involved  efforts  to  secure  for  him  an  income  of  at  least  a 
thousand  pounds,  a  large  sum  in  those  days.  Such  bishops 
as  the  church  has  since  possessed  in  Chase  and  Kemper 
and  Washington  Lee  were  quite  beyond  the  conception  of 
the  churchmen  of  that  day. 

Besides  the  imperfect  estimate  of  a  bishop's  office  as  a 
pioneer  missionary,  there  arose  another  obstacle  to  the 
demands  of  the  colonial  churches  from  the  vague  concep- 
tion of  their  wants  and  surroundings  by  the  mother-coun- 
try. The  America  of  that  time  was  more  distant  than  the 
South  Africa  of  this.  It  was,  in  the  minds  of  men,  wilder 
and  more  savage  than  Australia  and  New  Zealand  in  the 
day  of  their  first  colonization.  It  seemed  incongruous  to 
furnish  colonists  surrounded  with  negroes  and  Indians, 
whose  life  was  so  rude,  whose  wants  were  so  primitive, 
with  all  the  institutions  of  an  old  and  advanced  ci\-ilization. 
They  might  be  happy  if  the  Bishop  of  London  noticed 
them  enough  to  ordain  their  native  candidates  who  crossed 
the  seas.  The  palace  at  Lambeth  was  as  much  beyond 
their  reach  as  the  palace  of  Westminster. 

This  explanation  of  the  denial  of  the  episcopate  to 
America  does  not  excuse  it.  It  illustrates  the  difficulties 
of  a  state  church  as  a  missionary  propaganda.  Whatever 
advantages  inhere  in  an  establishment  which  has  grown 
with  the  growth  of  the  nation,  and  become  intertwined 
with  its  traditions  and  institutions  at  home,  in  its  efforts  to 
extend  its  jurisdiction  abroad,  the  church's  spiritual  effi- 
ciency is  greatly  restricted  by  it. 

The  true  missionary  spirit  was  not  absent  from  the 
church's  heart,  however  Parliament  might  bind  the 
church's  hands.^  At  the  instance  of  Commissary  Bray, 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 

1   "  Digest  of  S.  P.  G.  Records,  1701-1892,"  third  edition,  pp.  4,  5. 


ORIGIN  OF   THE   S.  P.   G.  279 

Parts  was  founded  in  London  in  1 701 .  It  was  an  outgrowth 
and  extension  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,  of  which  Dr.  Bray  was  also  a  chief  .promoter, 
which  had  its  origin  in  1699,  and  whose  work  in  foreign 
parts  had  been  "  the  fixing  parochial  libraries  throughout 
the  plantations  (especially  on  the  continent  of  North 
America)."  After  Dr.  Bray's  brief  visit  to  Maryland  as 
commissary,  from  which  he  returned  in  1 700,  he  made  an 
appeal  to  the  crown  "  to  make  such  other  provision  as 
shall  be  necessary  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  in 
those  parts."  The  Lower  House  of  Convocation  of  Can- 
terbury appointed  a  committee  early  in  1701  to  consider 
the  same  subject.  Archbishop  Tenison  and  Bishop 
Compton  and  many  others  favored  the  project ;  and  the 
result  was  that  on  June  2'],  i/Oi,  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  held  its  first 
meeting  at  Lambeth  Palace,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
presiding,  with  many  other  bishops  and  distinguished 
churchmen,  clerical  and  lay,  present.  It  is  to  the  earnest, 
generous,  and  constant  zeal  of  this  society  that  the  colo- 
nial churches  were  more  indebted  than  to  all  other  sources 
put  together.  What  it  did  has  in  some  manner  been  made 
apparent  in  the  preceding  chronicle  of  the  different  colonial 
churches.  Its  course  was  marked  by  wisdom  from  the 
beginning.  It  at  once  prepared  for  a  preliminary  survey 
of  the  field.  It  chose  for  this  purpose  one  who  knew  the 
country  and  its  needs,  and  who  possessed,  moreover,  all 
the  enthusiasm  of  a  recent  convert  to  the  church. 

The  Rev.  George  Keith,  the  society's  agent  in  this 
matter,  was  originally  a  Presbyterian,  a  fellow-student 
of  Bishop  Burnet  at  Aberdeen.  He,  after  graduation, 
became  a  preacher  among  the  Quakers  in  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania,  and  after  a  dispute  with  the  Society 
of  Friends  concerning  the  value  of  external  as  contrasted 


28o  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  xi. 

with  internal  rev^elation,  became  the  leader  of  a  schism. 
He  finally  conformed  to  the  church,  and  was  sent  as 
first  itinerant  missionary  of  the  S.  P.  G.  "  to  traverse  the 
colonies,  inquire  into  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  people, 
and  to  awaken  them  to  a  sense  of  the  importance  and 
reality  of  the  Christian  religion."  From  the  information 
gathered  by  him  and  his  volunteer  attendant.  Rev.  John 
Talbot,  the  society  began  the  work  of  sending  and 
appointing  missionaries.  In  1741  Bishop  Seeker,  after- 
ward archbishop,  could  speak  thus  of  the  results :  "  In 
less  than  forty  years,  under  many  discouragements  and 
with  an  income  very  disproportionate  to  the  vastness  of 
the  undertaking,  a  great  deal  hath  been  done.  Near  a 
hundred  churches  have  been  built;  above  ten  thousand 
Bibles  and  Prayer-books,  above  a  hundred  thousand 
other  pious  tracts  distributed ;  great  multitudes,  on  the 
whole,  of  negroes  and  Indians  brought  over  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith ;  many  numerous  congregations  have  been  set 
up  which  now  support  the  worship  of  God  at  their  own 
expense,  where  it  was  not  known  before ;  and  seventy 
persons  are  constantly  employed,  at  the  expense  of  the 
society,  in  the  farther  service  of  the  gospel." 

In  less  than  forty  years  after  this,  when  by  the  independ- 
ence of  the  United  States  the  former  colonies  were  cut 
off  from  the  assistance  on  which  they  had  relied  so  long, 
a  brief  summary  of  what  the  society  had  done  in  seventy- 
five  years  gives  the  following  results.  It  had  maintained 
310  ordained  missionaries,  had  assisted  202  central  stations, 
and  had  expended  ;^22 7,454,  or  nearly  a  million  and  a 
quarter  of  dollars.  It  had  stimulated  and  supported  mis- 
sions to  the  negroes  and  the  Indians  as  well  as  to  the  white 
colonists.  Its  labors  were  chiefly  in  those  colonies  where 
the  church  was  not  established ;  and  the  contrast  between 


JVORIsT  ACCOMPLISHED  BY   THE   S^.  P.   G.  28 1 

the  results  of  the  vokmtary  and  the  government  effort  is 
markedly  in  favor  of  the  former. 

Since  its  cessation  of  labors  in  the  United  States  the 
Venerable  Society  has  on  three  separate  occasions  shown 
its  sympathy  with  the  church  it  nurtured  so  long,  by 
handsome  gifts  of  money  to  the  corporation  of  St.  George 
the  Martyr  in  New  York,  to  Bishop  Tuttle's  mission  to  the 
Mormons  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  to  the  church  in  Maine. 
In  recognition  of  its  invaluable  services  an  alms-basin  was 
presented  by  the  American  to  the  English  church  at  the 
one  hundred  and  seventy-first  anniversary  of  the  society, 
held  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  July  4,  1872.  At  the  time 
of  the  first  Lambeth  Conference  of  Anglican  Bishops 
throughout  the  World,  in  1868,  Bishop  Littlejohn,  of  Long 
Island,  at  a  missionary  conference  given  by  the  society, 
gave  utterance  to  the  sentiments  of  all  American  hearts 
when  he  said : 

"  For  nearly  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth  century  this 
society  furnished  the  only  point  of  contact,  the  only  bond 
of  sympathy,  between  the  Church  of  England  and  her 
children  scattered  over  the  waste  places  of  the  New  World. 
...  It  is  therefore  with  joy  and  gratitude  that  we,  the 
representatives  of  the  American  church,  greet  the  Vener- 
able Society  on  tRis  occasion  as  the  first  builder  of  our 
ecclesiastical  foundations,  and  lay  at  her  feet  the  golden 
sheaves  of  the  harvest  of  her  planting.  .  .  .  May  God 
speed  the  work  of  this  society  in  the  future  as  in  the  past! 
The  greatest,  the  most  enduring,  the  most  fruitful  of  all 
missionary  organizations  of  Reformed  Christendom,  may 
it  continue  to  be  in  the  years  to  come,  as  in  those  which 
are  gone,  the  workshop  of  churches,  the  treasury  of  needy 
souls  all  over  the  world!" 

Again,  in  1883,  the  General  Convention  acknowledged 


282  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  xi. 

the  congratulations  of  the  society  in  a  message  of  which 
the  following  words  are  an  extract:  "  At  the  close  of  the 
first  century  of  our  existence  as  a  national  church  we  ac- 
knowledge with  deep  and  unfeigned  gratitude  that  what- 
ever this  church  has  been  in  the  past,  is  now,  or  will  be  in 
the  future,  is  largely  due,  under  God,  to  the  long-continued 
nursing  care  and  protection  of  the  Venerable  Society." 

Of  all  individual  influences  upon  the  fortunes  of  the 
English  Church  in  the  American  colonies,  that  of  Bishop 
Berkeley  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  and  most  beneficent. 
He  landed  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  in  January,  1729,  and  he 
had  come  in  pursuance  of  a  purpose  to  found  in  the  west- 
ern hemisphere  a  Christian  university.  He  had  fixed  upon 
the  Bermuda  Islands  for  this  purpose,  "  as  a  spot  favorable 
to  the  health,  industry,  and  morals  of  the  students,  and  at 
the  same  time  healthful  and  commodious  for  all  the  Eng- 
lish possessions  in  the  western  hemisphere,  both  insular 
and  continental."  He  had  in  early  life  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  best  hope  of  the  human  race  was  to  trans- 
fer itself  gradually  from  the  Old  World  to  the  New,  where 
it  might  begin  its  career  over  again,  freed  from  the  evil 
traditions  with  which  it  had  become  environed.  To  pre- 
serve the  New  World  from  a  like  corruption,  religion  and 
education  were  the  essential  elements  in  its  early  civiliza- 
tion. The  church  had  been  planted  and  was  fostered  by 
the  Venerable  Society.  Berkeley,  therefore,  would  devote 
his  life  to  the  promotion  of  education. 

He  was,  at  the  time  of  his  coming  to  America,  forty-four 
years  old.  He  had  been  educated  at  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  and,  both  as  a  student  and  fellow  of  that  institu- 
tion, had  been  distinguished  for  scholarship  and  philo- 
sophical acumen.  Before  he  was  ordained  in  1 709,  he 
had  begun  his  philosophical  publications.      Afterwards  he 


DEAN  BERKELEY'S  AMERICAN  PROJECT.  283 

became  the  associate  and  friend  of  Addison  and  Steele  and 
Swift.  He  lived  for  four  or  five  years  upon  the  Continent, 
engaged  in  profound  studies  concerning  the  sociological 
conditions  of  Europe.  These  studies  developed  his  views 
concerning  the  value  of  the  new  civilization  in  America. 
On  his  return  from  the  Continent  he  had  been  made  first 
Dean  of  Dromore,  then  Dean  of  Derry  ;  and  such  was  the 
recognition  of  his  abilities  and  character  that  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  promotion  was  within  his  reach.  Bishop 
Atterbury  had  said  of  him :  "  So  much  knowledge,  so 
much  innocence,  and  such  humility,  I  did  not  think  had 
been  the  portion  of  any  but  angels  till  I  saw  this  gentle- 
man." To  one  so  gifted  and  prized,  however,  no  prospect 
of  personal  promotion  seemed  in  the  least  comparable  with 
the  opportunity  to  permanently  better  mankind.  He  ear- 
nestly set  about  enlisting  the  sympathy  of  his  friends, 
and  securing  their  gifts  for  his  enterprise,  so  earnestly  that- 
Dean  Swift  wrote  to  Lord  Carteret,  "  His  heart  will  break 
if  his  deanery  be  not  taken  from  him,"  and  his  project 
accomplished. 

His  earnestness  was  contagious,  and  he  secured  a  num- 
ber of  voluntary  contributions.  Unfortunately  he  did  not 
confine  himself  to  these,  by  which  in  the  end  he  might 
have  secured  the  necessary  endowment,  but  sought  also  a 
government  appropriation.  To  the  five  thousand  pounds 
which  he  had  raised,  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  prime  minister, 
added  a  personal  subscription  of  two  hundred,  and  gave  a 
promise  not  to  oppose  the  bill  asking  for  an  appropriation 
by  the  House  of  Commons.  The  charter  of  the  college  was 
granted,  and  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  certain  lands  in 
the  West  Indies  were  bestowed  upon  it  by  Parliament.  In 
view  of  this  Walpole  promised  to  Berkeley  twenty  thou- 
sand pounds.  For  two  years  the  dean  waited  in  England 
for  the  grant,  in  the  meantime  completing  his  preparations. 


284  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.        [Chap.  xi. 

Then  Walpole  declared  the  grant  could  not  be  paid  until 
he  had  actually  made  some  investment  in  America  for  the 
college.  This  is  the  explanation  of  his  appearance  in  the 
harbor  of  Newport,  and  of  his  purchase  of  the  farm  near 
the  second  beach  at  that  place,  and  of  his  residence  in 
Rhode  Island.  He  waited  in  vain.  Walpole  evaded  the 
promise  made,  and  advised  his  return.  He  replied  to  the 
Bishop  of  London,  who,  as  Berkeley's  friend,  pressed  upon 
him  the  fulfilment  of  his  promise :  "  As  minister  I  must 
and  can  assure  you  that  the  money  shall  most  undoubtedly 
be  paid  as  soon  as  suits  with  public  convenience ;  but  if 
you  ask  me  as  a  friend  whether  Dean  Berkeley  should 
continue  in  America,  expecting  the  payment  of  the  twenty 
thousand  pounds,  I  advise  him  by  all  means  to  return 
home  to  Europe,  and  to  give  up  his  present  expectations." 
Thus  the  project  of  Berkeley,  in  the  form  in  which  he 
sought  to  accomplish  it,  was  frustrated ;  and  he  returned 
to  England  in  1731,  was  made  Bishop  of  Cloyne  in  1734, 
and  died  in  1753.  While,  however,  his  purpose  failed  of 
fulfilment  as  an  established  institution,  it  came  to  fruition 
as  a  leaven  which  permeated  powerfully  the  church  life  of 
the  colonies.  He  became  the  inspiring  and  guiding  spirit 
of  the  church's  efforts  in  the  sphere  of  higher  education. 
The  very  presence  in  America  of  a  churchman  of  such 
genius  and  accomplishments  gave  to  the  church  an  intel- 
lectual atmosphere  which  it  had  greatly  lacked  before. 
Not  only  did  he,  during  his  sojourn  in  Rhode  Island,  write 
his  most  celebrated  work,  "  Alciphron,"  but,  from  the  very 
first,  he  put  himself  into  communication  with  the  men 
who  were  working  in  American  colleges,  inspired  them  by 
his  enthusiasm,  and  assisted  them  by  gifts  of  books.  His 
donations  of  both  books  and  landed  property  to  Yale  Col- 
lege have  linked  his  name  indissolubly  with  that  honored 
institution  as  one  of  its  earliest  and  most  munificent  ben- 


BERKELEY'S  INFLUENCE   IN  AMERICA.  285 

efactors.  He  became,  also,  the  intimate  friend  and  fre- 
quent  correspondent  of  Rev.  Samuel  Johnson,  of  Stratford, 
Conn.,  and  through  him,  after  his  return  to  Europe,  con- 
tributed largely  toward  forming  the  charters  and  direct- 
ing the  course  of  the  Academy  and  College  of  Philadelphia 
(now  the  University  of  Pennsylvania)  and  of  King's  Col- 
lege, New  York  (now  Columbia  College). 

Dr.  Johnson  was  called  to  be  the  first  president  of  both 
these  institutions.  Benjamin  Franklin  strongly  urged  the 
claims  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  upon  him ;  and, 
though  Johnson  declined  the  offered  position,  he  com- 
municated to  Franklin  the  suggestions  of  Bishop  Berkeley, 
which  were  carefully  considered  and  acted  upon.  This 
was  not  strictly  a  church  institution,  but  it  was  largely 
under  the  influence  of  churchmen,  and  its  first  provost 
was  the  distinguished  Rev.  William  Smith,  one  of  the  men 
most  influential  in  determining  the  constitution  and  canons 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  If  it  was  not  the 
child,  it  was  the  foster-child  of  Berkeley. 

Of  King's  College  (now  Columbia  College)  Bishop 
Berkeley  was  the  true  spiritual  founder.  Its  first  trustees 
acted  explicitly  and  consciously  on  the  model  conveyed 
to  them,  through  Samuel  Johnson  its  first  president,  from 
the  bishop.  This  institution  has  always  been  under  the 
direction  of  a  churchman  as  its  head,  the  corporation  of 
Trinity  Church  having  given  the  site  on  the  condition  that 
the  president  of  the  college  should  be  in  communion  with 
the  Church  of  England,  and  that  the  Morning  and  Even- 
ing Prayers  should  be  those  of  the  Prayer-book.  Thus  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  metropohs  of  America  the  dream  of 
the  great  dean  is  finding  realization  in  a  way  far  more 
effective  than  the  exact  accomplishment  of  his  plans  for  a 
college  in  Bermuda  could  have  secured. 

The  influence  of  Berkeley  has  not  yet  died  out.      His  is 


286  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.        [Chap.  xi. 

Still  a  name  to  conjure  with  in  matters  educational.  The 
town  wherein  stands  the  University  of  California  is  named 
in  honor  of  him.  His  name  is  given  to  the  Divinity 
School  of  Connecticut  at  Middletown,  and  to  various  pre- 
paratory schools  throughout  the  country,  notably  those  in 
New  York  and  Providence.  The  Berkeley  Prize  which  he 
founded  in  Yale  College  is  one  of  the  most  coveted  in  the 
university  at  New  Haven.  There  a  college  hall  bears  his 
name,  and  a  stained-glass  window  stands  as  his  memorial 
in  the  college  chapel.  His  interest  in  America  con- 
tinued active  after  his  return  to  Europe.  He  frequently 
corresponded  upon  topics  of  education  with  our  prominent 
professors,  and  wrote  shortly  before  his  death  to  President 
Clap  :  "  The  daily  increase  in  religion  and  learning  in  your 
seminary  of  Yale  College  gives  me  very  sensible  pleasure 
and  an  ample  recompense  for  my  poor  endeavors  to  further 
those  good  ends."  His  interest  in  America  was  continued 
by  his  son,  the  Rev.  George  Berkeley,  whose  influence 
both  in  Scotland  and  England  in  securing  an  American 
episcopate  was  as  great  as,  if  not  greater  than,  that  of  any 
other  single  man. 

The  advantages  of  the  colonial  churches  are  thus  seen 
to  have  arisen,  not  from  government  patronage,  but  from 
personal  and  voluntary  counsel  and  contributions. 


PERIOD    II. 

THE  PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES  (a.d.  1789-1895). 


CHAPTER   XII. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  ACTION   PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  FORMA- 
TION OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

When  the  War  of  the  Revolution  had  ended  it  became' 
a  difficult  and  delicate  task  to  gather  the  scattered  rem- 
nants of  the  English  colonial  churches  together,  and  out 
of  them  to  construct  an  ecclesiastical  corporation  coter- 
minous with  the  nation.  The  nation  itself  was  as  yet  un- 
settled in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  union  of  the  States. 
The  political  condition  of  the  confederation  did  not  of 
itself  tend  to  foster  the  conception  of  one  uniform  Episco- 
pal communion  for  the  whole  country.  The  first  efforts, 
therefore,  for  the  resuscitation  of  the  Episcopal  parishes 
were  provincial.  The  church,  as  well  as  the  nation,  passed 
through  a  confederate  period  which,  only  after  several  years, 
resulted  in  both  cases  in  the  adoption  of  a  constitution 
which  established  unity.  In  the  same  year  (1789)  the 
United  States  became  a  nation  with  a  President  and  a 
Constitution,  and  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  an 
organized  ecclesiastical  body  with  Bishops  and  a  General 
Convention.  Previous  to  this  consummation  the  State, 
in  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  political  affairs,  preserved  a 
prominence  which  concentrated  attention  on  the  concerns 
of  the  church  within  its  own  borders.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  national  existence  the  Episcopal  Church  in  each 
State  considered  itself  an  integral  part  of  the  church  of 
Christ,  independent  in  its. government  of  any  other  branch 

287 


288  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

of  the  church  in  Christendom.  So  ingrained  was  this  idea 
that  the  habit  of  referring  to  the  State  rather  than  to  the 
diocese  continued  long  after  ecclesiastical  unity  had  been 
established.  As  a  consequence,  before  any  proposition 
had  been  made  from  any  quarter,  or  any  meeting  had 
been  held  anywhere,  looking  to  organic  unity,  the  churches 
in  the  various  States  began  to  consider  how  best  to  secure 
the  separate  interests  of  their  own  locality. 

The  ecclesiastical  tie  with  the  Bishop  of  London  having 
been  severed,  and  all  support  from  the  Venerable  Society 
having  ceased  by  the  terms  of  its  charter,  three  great 
necessities  forced  themselves  on  the  attention  of  earnest 
churchmen.  These  were  :  first,  the  conservation  of  church 
property ;  second,  the  preservation  of  the  church's  wor- 
ship ;  third,  the  inauguration  of  an  American  episcopate. 

These  three  needs  were  differently  emphasized  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  country.  The  South,  as  the  seat  of  the 
Establishment,  had  its  attention  first  directed  to  the  neces- 
sity of  gathering  up  the  fragments  of  church  property 
which  had  survived  the  wreck  of  the  war.  As  this 
property  had  its  title  in  the  enactment  of  a  government 
which  was  now  discarded,  and  as  it  had  been  given  to  an 
Establishment  which  was  now  repudiated,  it  was  a  question 
of  moment  and  difficulty  how  to  avoid  complete  parochial 
bankruptcy. 

The  churches  of  the  Middle  States,  Pennsylvania  and 
the  Jerseys,  had  been  especially  depleted,  being  in  the 
'pathway  of  the  war.  With  clergy  scattered  and  congre- 
gations dispersed,  the  thought  which  came  first  into  the 
minds  of  the  sincere  churchmen  who  remained  was  how 
to  gather  together  the  spiritual  body,  and  nourish  it  with 
the  convenient  food  of  the  liturgy,  and  once  more  estab- 
lish it  in  the  ways  of  rational  piety  until  such  time  as  the 
full  system  of  the  church  could  be  introduced. 


ACTION  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  289 

.In  New  England,  where  the  church  had  always  existed 
in  opposition  to  the  popular  will,  and  where  it  had  espe- 
cially felt  the  defect  of  incomplete  organization,  the  first 
necessity  descried  and  the  first  efifort  made  was  to  secure 
the  episcopate.  It  was  in  Connecticut,  where  the  church 
had  grown  up  on  the  soil,  developed  out  of  conviction,  not 
merely  received  by  inheritance ;  where  its  ministry  was 
chiefly  native,  and  its  character  especially  steadfast  and 
correct,  that  the  first  distinct  motion  for  completing  the 
church  organism  by  obtaining  a  bishop  was  put  forth. 
This  object  was  the  one  most  beset  with  difficulties,  having 
to  face  apathy  abroad  and  turn  its  back  on  distrust  and 
enmity  at  home.  It  was  felt,  however,  to  be  a  matter  of 
life  or  death  to  the  church.  The  body  and  the  members 
were  both  preserved,  though  in  disabled  condition ;  but 
the  head  must  be  added,  and  at  once,  or  the  church  could 
neither  run  nor  walk,  but  must  limp  impotently  among  its 
adversaries,  whose  polity  was  complete,  and  whose  patriot- 
ism was  astir  with  hatred  of  both  the  English  state  and  the 
English  Church.      Such  was  the  general  situation. 

ACTION    IN    PENNSYLVANIA. 

The  first  suggestion  of  a  plan  for  resuscitating  the  Epis- 
copal churches  and  binding  them  together  into  some  sort 
of  unity  emanated  from  the  Rev.  William  White,  presbyter 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia. 
In  the  summer  of  1782,  after  active  hostilities  had  ceased, 
but  before  independence  had  been  acknowledged  or  peace 
declared,  he  published  anonymously  a  pamphlet  entitled 
"  The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  the  United  States 
Considered."  ^     This  publication  was  prepared  just  at  the 

1  The  document  is  given  in  "  Half-century  of  I,egislation  of  the  American 
Church,"  Ferry,  vol.  iii.,  p.  421.  Dr.  White  himself  gave  this  account  of  it 
in  a  charge  which  he  delivered  to  his  clergy  in  1 832,  forty-five  years  after  he 


290  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

time  when  Sir  Guy  Carleton  made  the  first  communication 
looking  toward  the  estabHshment  of  peace  with  independ- 
ence. It  contemplated  a  state  of  things  where  there  was 
no  bishop  and  no  likelihood  of  obtaining  one ;  and  its  ob- 
ject was  to  inaugurate  such  action  as  should  prevent  the 
entire  dissolution  of  the  remaining  parishes  and  congre- 
gations. The  author  pointed  to  the  fact  that  all  former 
jurisdiction  over  the  churches  had  been  withdrawn  by  the 
war,  and  that  their  future  continuance  could  only  be  pro- 


had  been  made  bishop :  "  The  congregations  of  our  communion  throughout 
the  United  States  were  approaching  annihilation.  Akhough  within  this  city 
[Philadelphia]  three  Episcopal  clergymen  were  resident  and  officiating,  the 
churches  over  the  rest  of  the  State  had  become  deprived  of  their  clergy  during 
the  war,  either  by  death  or  by  departure  for  England.  In  the  Eastern  States, 
with  two  or  three  exceptions,  there  was  a  cessation  of  the  exercises  of  the 
pulpit,  owing  to  the  necessary  disuse  of  the  prayers  for  the  former  civil 
rulers.  In  Maryland  and  Virginia,  where  the  church  had  enjoyed  civil  es- 
tablishments, on  the  ceasing  of  these,  the  incumbents  of  the  parishes,  almost 
without  exception,  ceased  to  officiate.  Farther  South  the  condition  of  the 
church  was  not  better,  to  say  the  least.  At  the  time  in  question  there  had 
occurred  some  circumstances  which  prompted  the  hope  of  a  discontinuance 
of  the  war ;  but  that  it  would  be  with  the  acknowledgment  of  American  in- 
dependence there  was  little  reason  to  expect.  On  the  6th  of  August,  1782, 
the  Congress,  as  noticed  on  their  printed  '  Journal '  of  that  day,  received  a 
communication  from  Sir  Guy  Carleton  and  Admiral  Digby,  dated  the  2d  of 
that  month,  which  gave  the  first  opening  of  the  prospect  of  peace.  The 
pamphlet  ["  The  Case,"  etc.]  had  been  advertised  for  sale  in  the  '  Presbyte- 
rian Packet '  of  the  6th  ;  and  some  copies  had  been  previously  handed  by  the 
author  to  a  few  of  his  friends.  This  suspended  the  intended  proceedings  in 
the  business,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  author,  would  have  been  justified 
by  necessity,  and  by  no  other  consideration. 

"  It  was  an  opinion  commonly  entertained  that,  if  there  should  be  a  discon- 
tinuance of  military  operations,  it  would  be  without  the  acknowledgement  of 
independence,  as  happened  after  the  severance  of  the  Netherlands  from  the 
crown  of  Spain.  Of  the  like  issue  there  seemed  probable  causes  in  the  feel- 
ings attendant  on  disappointed  efforts  for  conquest,  and  in  the  belief  cherished 
that  the  successes  of  the  former  colonists  would  be  followed  by  dissensions, 
inducing  the  return  to  the  domination  of  the  mother-country.  Had  the 
war  ended  in  that  way,  our  obtaining  of  the  succession  from  England  would 
have  been  hopeless.  The  remnant  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Scotland, 
laboring  under  penal  laws  not  executed,  would  hardly  have  regarded  the 
bringing  down  on  themselves  of  the  arm  of  government.  Fear  of  the  like 
offense  would  have  operated  in  any  other  quarter  to  which  we  might  have 
had  recourse.  In  such  a  case  the  obtaining  of  the  succession  in  time  to  save 
from  ruin  would  seem  to  have  been  impossible." 


"CASE   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL    CHURCHES:'  29 1 

vided  for  by  voluntary  associations  for  union  and  good 
government.  He  therefore  advocated  an  immediate  move- 
ment, without  waiting  for  the  presence  of  a  bishop,  which 
should  bring  the  churches  into  some  measure  of  association 
and  common  government.  Most  of  the  principles  main- 
tained in  the  pamphlet  were  afterward  incorporated  in  the 
constitution  of  the  church.  With  the  exception  of  the 
provisional  substitute  for  a  bishop  (made  unnecessary, 
before  the  pamphlet  was  really  issued,  by  the  recognition 
of  the  independence  of  the  country),  the  general  features 
of  the  plan  still  exist  in  the  organization  which  was  finally 
established  in  i  789. 

"  The  Case  "  was  a  very  remarkable  forecast,  as  coming 
from  the  mind  of  one  but  thirty- five  years  of  age.  The 
principle  of  lay  representation  was  fully  enunciated  in  it. 
The  features  which  are  now  embodied  in  our  Diocesan  and 
General  Conventions  were  here  distinctly  traced  in  their 
essential  characteristics.  To  state  the  plan  more  fully  and 
distinctly :  The  individual  churches  were  to  be  associated 
in  small  districts,  in  each  of  which  the  minister  should 
be  a  delegate  to  a  Convention  composed  of  representa- 
tives elected  from  the  vestry  or  congregation  which  they 
served.  A  permanent  president  was  to  be  chosen,  who, 
with  other  clergymen  appointed  by  the  body,  might  exer- 
cise powers  purely  spiritual,  including  powers  of  ordination 
and  discipline  according  to  reasonable  laws.  The  country 
was  to  be  divided  into  three  large  districts,  each  of  which 
should  have  an  annual  assembly,  consisting  of  members 
of  the  smaller  districts  within  it,  composed  equally  of 
clergy  and  laity,  the  presiding  clergyman  being  always  one. 
There  was  also  to  be  a  body  representing  the  whole  church, 
consisting  of  members  from  each  of  the  three  larger  dis- 
tricts, chosen  from  clergy  and  laity  equally,  which  should 
meet  statedly  once  in  three  years.     The  general  doctrinal 


292  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

position  of  the  church  was  sketched  very  much  as  it  now 
exists ;  for  the  clergy,  the  questions  contained  in  the 
ordination  service,  "  with  some  general  sanction  given  to 
the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  so  as  to  adopt  their  leading 
sense,  not  exacting  entire  uniformity  of  sentiment."  For 
divine  worship  it  was  urged  that  power  be  lodged  some- 
where "  of  making  necessary  and  convenient  alterations 
in  the  service  of  the  church,"  with  the  caution  that  such 
power  should  be  exercised  with  great  moderation.  With 
regard  to  ecclesiastical  discipline  a  like  moderation  was 
commended.  "  Such  are  the  tyranny  and  hypocrisy  too 
frequently  arising  from  the  exercise  of  this  power,"  it  said, 
"  that  it  may  be  thought  safest  to  leave  men  to  those 
great  sanctions  of  duty,  the  will  of  God  and  future  repro- 
bation." 

Attention  has  usually  been  withdrawn  from  the  general 
governmental  positions  of  this  pamphlet,  which  constituted 
its  chief  value  and  its  enduring  influence,  and  fixed  upon 
its  proposal  to  convey  for  a  while  the  power  of  ordination 
to  a  presiding  presbyter  until  such  time  as  a  bishop  could 
be  obtained.  This  suggestion  attracted  great  attention, 
and  called  forth  much  animadversion,  especially  from  the 
clergy  of  New  England  and  New  York.  It  perhaps  quick- 
ened the  action  of  the  clergy  of  Connecticut,  to  whose 
notice  it  had  been  brought,  in  meeting  and  selecting  a 
candidate  for  the  episcopate  in  March  of  the  following 
year.  It  certainly  called  forth  from  them  a  strong  protest 
against  its  principles,  in  a  letter  written  in  their  behalf  by 
Dr.  Jarvis,  which  stood  by  the  position  that  a  church  with- 
out a  bishop  was  no  church,  and  that  the  necessity  of  the 
sacraments  was  not  greater  than  the  necessity  for  the 
authority  to  administer  them.  This  letter,  while  urging 
that  the  true  and  timely  remedy  was  an  immediate  appli- 
cation abroad  for.  the  episcopate,  did  not  mention  the  fact 


WHITE'S  POSITION  ON  EPISCOPACY.  293 

that  steps  had  been  taken  in  that  direction  by  the  Con- 
necticut clergy.  The  necessity  of  secrecy  was  deemed  so 
imperative  that  Dr.  White  was  not  advised  of  this  action 
until  more  than  a  year  later,  when  he  met  with  some 
clergy  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  to  consider  the  situation 
of  ecclesiastical  affairs. 

The  proposal,  however,  to  do  without  the  episcopate 
was  only  a  dictate  of  necessity,  and  it  was  provided  "  to 
include  in  the  proposed  frame  of  government  a  general 
approbation  of  episcopacy^  and  a  declaration  of  an  inten- 
tion to  procure  the  succession  as  soon  as  conveniently  may 
be";  and  when  it  had  been  obtained,  "to  confer  a  con- 
ditional ordination  on  those  already  made  presbyters,  to 
repair  any  defect  in  their  orders."  With  the  declaration 
of  peace  Dr.  White  recognized  and  rejoiced  that  no  such 
necessity  as  he  had  suggested  now  existed ;  and  in  his 
answer  to  Dr.  Jarvis  he  pointed  out  that  the  letter  from 
Connecticut  was  a  protest  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  prop- 
osition. He,  however,  always  stood  by  the  position  he 
had  taken.  In  his  pamphlet  he  had  fortified  that  posi- 
tion by  reference  to  Hooker,  Bishop  Hoadley,  Archbishop 
Usher,  Archbishop  Cranmer,  and  others  of  the  English 
divines  who  had  allowed  necessity  as  a  valid  reason  for 
departing  from  the  episcopal  regimen ;  showing  that  his 
position  had  been  well  considered  before  it  was  taken. 
He  maintained  that  "  a  temporary  departure  from  episco- 
pacy in  the  present  instance  would  be  warranted  by  her 
[the  Church  of  England's]  doctrines,  by  her  practice,  and 
by  the  principles  on  which  episcopal  government  is 
asserted."  He  never  changed  his  views  on  this  subject, 
though  he  deemed  it  fortunate  that  he  was  not  called  to 
act  upon  them.  So  late  as  1830,  in  a  letter^  to  his  dear 
friend  and  son  in  the  gospel.  Bishop  Hobart,  who  in  this 
>  See  "  Memoir  of  Bishop  White,"  Bird  Wilson,  D.D.,  pp.  86,  87. 


294  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

respect  differed  so  widely  from  him,  he  remarks  in  a  note  : 
"  In  agreement  with  the  sentiments  expressed  in  that 
pamphlet  ["The  Case,"  etc.],  I  am  still  of  opinion  that 
in  an  exigency  in  which  a  duly  authorized  ministry  cannot 
be  obtained,  the  paramount  duty  of  preaching  the  gospel, 
and  the  worshiping  of  God  in  the  terms  of  the  Christian 
covenant,  should  go  on  in  the  best  manner  which  circum- 
stances permit.  In  regard  to  the  episcopacy,  I  think  that 
it  should  be  sustained  as  the  government  of  the  church 
from  the  time  of  the  apostles,  but  without  criminating  the 
ministry  of  other  churches ;  as  is  the  course  taken  by  the 
Church  of  England." 

Dr.  White  was  in  the  real  sense  of  the  word  a  statesman. 
His  temperament,  his  convictions,  his  training,  all  kept  him 
from  being  an  unpractical  idealist.  The  elevation  of  his 
nature,  and  his  conception  and  experience  of  the  value  of 
Christian  life  and  doctrine,  preserved  him  equally  from  a 
truckling  expediency.  His  plan  for  organizing  the  church 
in  America  was  free  from  all  effort  to  force  a  theory ;  but 
his  fundamental  regard  for  principle  kept  him  from  the 
contrasted  danger  of  mere  opportunism.  He  recognized 
the  validity  of  the  church  principle  and  the  value  of  its 
historical  integrity.  To  illustrate  the  one  and  to  conserve 
the  other  were  his  equal  determination.  He  would  gather 
together  and  concentrate  all  the  life  present  and  all  the 
disorganization  existent,  that  these  might  be  saved  from 
integration  and  held  in  feadiness  for  larger  and  more 
perfect  development.  While  he  was  not  a  doctrinaire, 
insistent  on  an  instant  completeness  which  he  could  not 
compass,  he  yet  contemplated  the  ultimate  realization  of 
every  element  of  a  full  church  organization.  While  not 
an  opportunist  in  the  sense  of  discarding  essential  elements 
of  life  or  organization  for  immediate  success,  he  chose  an 
incomplete    realization    for   a   season,   in  preference   to   a 


WHITE'S  ADVOCACY  OF  LAY  REPRESENTATION.    2g$ 

complete  dissolution  for  all  time.  He  had,  in  fine,  so  high 
a  conception  of  the  value  of  religion  as  the  traditions  and 
creeds  and  organization  of  the  English  Church  presented 
and  regulated  it  that  he  would  allow  no  temporary  obstacle 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  its  future  realization  in  the  United 
States.  The  church  might  limp  until  it  could  walk,  but  it 
must  keep  in  motion.  And  when  it  could  stand  in  its  own 
right  it  must  stand  unfettered  by  foreign  domination  or 
proscription.  It  must  be,  not  the  Church  of  England  in  i^ 
America,  but  the  American  church.  While  holding  to  the 
essential  and  permanent  features  of  the  English  Establish- 
ment, the  American  church  was  not  only  not  to  be  an 
Establishment,  which  indeed  were  impossible,  but  it  was 
to  be  adapted  to  American  life  and  ideas  in  its  constitution 
and  administration.  It  was  to  make  its  appeal  to  the 
national  character  and  spirit.  Hence  it  could  not  be  sim- 
ply a  clerical  autocracy ;  it  must  draw  its  strength  from 
the  source  which  supplied  strength  to  the  state,  namely, 
the  people.  Lay  representation  became  thus  a  prime 
element  in  its  structure.  He  regarded  this,  indeed,  as  a 
practice  of  the  primitive  church ;  but  his  urgent  and  com- 
pelling motive  for  its  introduction  was  not  chiefly  a  regard 
for  antiquity,  but  his  conviction  of  its  necessity  for  a  vig- 
orous and  truly  national  life  of  the  church  in  the  United 
States.  The  laity,  in  fact,  through  the  absence  of  any 
thorough  ecclesiastical  system,  had  had  so  large  a  share  in 
parochial  management  during  the  colonial  period  that  not 
to  have  admitted  them  to  the  church  councils  would  have 
seemed  to  deprive  them  of  a  right  already  existent.  To 
recognize  them  as  representatives  did  not  appear  like  the 
introduction  of  a  novelty.  It  seemed  to  be  the  appropri- 
ate recognition  of  the  old  spirit  of  church  administration. 
Such,  then,  being  his  purpose  (to  embody  the  essential 
elements  of  the  English  Establishment  in  a  form  of  organ- 


296  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

ization  which  should  imbibe  and  express  the  national  spirit), 
Dr.  White  would  not  wait  either  for  a  complete  ecclesias- 
tical organization  or  a  full  national  representation  before 
undertaking  the  task.^     He  was  bent  on  an  organization 
of  the  churches  which  could  with  propriety  apply  for  the 
episcopate,  not  waiting  until  all  parts  of  the  country  could 
respond  to  the  proposal.     It  was  his  purpose  to  begin  with 
such  fragments  of  the  colonial  churches  as  could  be  gath- 
ered, in  order  that  there  might  be  some  body  which  could 
speak  with  representative  authority  and  form  the  nucleus 
of  a  complete  ecclesiastical  organization.     He  believed  this 
course  necessary  to  give  weight  to  the  intended  application 
to  the  English  Church,  when  the  time  should  come,  for  the 
episcopal  succession.      It  is  certain,  that  he  thus  obviated 
one    cardinal    objection   which    the  archbishops    brought 
forward  to  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Seabury,  viz.,  that 
there  was  no  ecclesiastical  or  civil  organization  back  of  him. 
These  views  were  the  issue  of  long  deliberation.     They 
were  the  outcome  of  a  mind  which  had  been  brought  into 
contact  with  most  of  the  great  minds  of  the  country  dur- 
ing the   critical  period   of  the  nation's  birth,  and  of  one 
who  had  deeply  imbibed  the  calm  and  devout  spirit  of  the 
communion  in  which  he  had  been  baptized  and  bred.     He 
came  of  gentle  blood,  his  father  being  an  Enghshman  of 
good  family  and  a  churchman.      His   mother  was  also  of 
the   Episcopal  Church,  with  a  strain   of  Quaker  blood   in 
her  veins.      He  was  born  in   the  spring  of  1747-48,  was 
baptized  in  Christ  Church,  and   carefully  trained  both  at 
home  and  in  school.      He  was  graduated  at  the  Academy 
and    College    of    Philadelphia     (now    the    University    of 
Pennsylvania),  a  good  scholar,   in    1765,   having  been  in 
that  institution  under  the  administration  of  the  provost,  Dr. 
William  Smith.     His  days  seem  to  have  been  "  bound  each 
1  "  Memoir  of  Bishop  White,"  Bird  Wilson,  D.D.,  p.  85. 


WHITE'S  EARLY  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION.  297 

to  each  by  natural  piety,"  and  his  companions  looked  upon 
him  as  a  predestined  clergyman.  His  pure  nature  was  im- 
pressed and  deepened  by  the  death  of  a  youthful  friend, 
and  by  the  preaching  of  Whitefield,  who,  as  an  old  man, 
on  his  last  visit  to  Philadelphia,  preached  in  Christ  Church 
once  more.  Thus  it  came  about  that  after  his  graduation 
at  the  age  of  seventeen  he  turned  his  attention  to  sacred 
literature,  and,  under  the  direction  of  Provost  Smith,  to- 
gether with  four  companions,  wrote  and  delivered  com- 
positions concerning  biblical  and  theological  subjects  on 
Sunday  evenings,  in  the  college  hall.  These  studies  and 
exercises  continued  for  five  years,  w^ien,  in  1770,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  England  for  orders. 

Ordered  deacon  in  December  of  that  year,  he  had  still 
eighteen  months  to  wait  until  of  proper  age  to  be  ordained 
to  the  priesthood  ;  and  during  this  time  he  either  sojourned 
with  his  aunts  (certain  Jacobite  ladies  of  gentle  blood  and 
impoverished  resources)  or  traveled  through  the  country. 
In  London  he  came  to  know  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  well  and 
Oliver  Goldsmith  more  slightly.  The  whole  sojourn  deep- 
ened his  culture  and  widened  his  intellectual  horizon.  On 
his  return  home,  in  September,  1772,  having  been  ordained 
priest  by  Dr.  Terrick,  Bishop  of  London,  in  June  of  the 
same  year,  he  at  once  became  an  assistant  minister  of 
Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  and  remained  connected  with 
it  all  the  rest  of  his  life.  When  the  hostilities  of  the  Rev- 
olution came  on,  young  White  espoused  earnestly  the 
cause  of  his  country.  He  had  studied  deeply  the  question 
of  allegiance,  and  felt,  no  doubt,  that  in  following  the 
cause  of  the  patriots  he  was  acting  on  the  principles  of  the 
English  Revolution  of  1688.  When  once  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  had  been  issued,  he  claimed  to  fulfill 
the  liturgical  law  of  praying  for  rulers  by  praying  for 
Congress  instead  of  the  king.     Circumstances,  in  his  view 


298  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

justifiable,  had  changed  the  persons,  as  in  England  they 
had  aforetime  substituted  William  III.  for  James  II.,  and 
henceforth  his  prayers  went  with  his  allegiance.  Though, 
to  use  his  own  phrase,  he  "  never  beat  the  ecclesiastical 
drum,"  he  was  chosen  chaplain  to  the  Continental  Congress 
while  on  his  way  with  his  family  to  Maryland  during  the 
advance  of  the  British  on  Philadelphia  in  1777,  and  the 
consequent  retreat  of  the  Congress  to  Yorktown. 

It  was  a  gloomy  moment  in  the  national  history.  Gen- 
eral Burgoyne  had  not  yet  been  checked  in  his  march 
through  northern  New  York,  the  severing  of  the  Southern 
from  the  Eastern  States  seemed  imminent,  and  the  war- 
chest  was  empty.  His  brother-in-law,  Robert  Morris,  said 
that  to  accept  the  post  of  chaplain  was  to  present  his  throat 
to  be  cut ;  but,  because  of  the  danger.  White  discerned 
the  duty.  Excluded  from  his  cure,  he  divided  his  time 
between  Congress  and  his  family  until  the  evacuation  of 
the  city  in  June.  He  continued  to  act  as  chaplain  alter- 
nately with  Rev.  Mr.  Duffield,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman, 
until  Congress  removed  to  New  York,  and  was  afterward 
appointed  chaplain  to  the  Federal  Congress  while  Phila- 
delphia was  the  seat  of  government.  On  Mr.  Duche's 
retirement  to  England,  after  his  letter  to  General  Wash- 
ington urging  an  end  of  the  war,  Mr.  White  was  made 
rector  of  the  parish.  Thus  from  his  youth  up  he  was 
brought  into  connection  with  the  best  minds  of  the  con- 
tinent. Philadelphia  was  then  the  largest  city  in  the 
country,  and  its  opulence  was  greater  than  that  of  New 
York  or  Boston.  The  presence  of  Congress  gathered 
together  in  the  city  the  most  influential  movers  in  affairs. 
White  thus  breathed  an  atmosphere  of  pure  patriotism 
and  enlightened  statesmanship.  He  was  in  the  midst 
of  affairs,  and  in  familiar  intercourse  with  those  who 
directed    and    controlled    them.       He    was    always    hon- 


WHITE'S  AMERICAN  SPIRIT.  299 

ored  by  them  for  his  scholarship  and  his  character. 
Washington  and  Frankhn  were  his  parishioners ;  Hopkin- 
son  and  Morris  were  his  vestrymen ;  Jay  and  Hamilton 
and  Madison  were  among  his  friends.  He  felt  the  stimulus 
of  their  greatness,  and  none  of  his  thoughts  or  projects 
were  petty,  though,  so  far  as  his  church  was  concerned, 
it  was  the  day  of  very  small  things. 

Thus  when  the  plan  of  raising  the  church  out  of  the 
dust  into  which  it  had  fallen  began  to  form  itself  in  his 
mind,  it  did  not  take  the  shape  first  of  a  perfect  ecclesias- 
tical structure,  as  with  the  Connecticut  churchmen,  nor 
of  a  legal  security  for  the  properties  of  a  disestablished 
Establishment,  as  with  the  churchmen  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia;  but  his  first  purpose  and  effort  were  for  the 
consoHdation  of  the  spiritual  forces  at  hand.  He  would 
nourish  and  augment  the  life  which  existed  by  consolidat- 
ing its  scattered  fragments,  and  increase  its  vigor  by  stim- 
ulating its  circulation.  From  this  status,  as  a  body  united 
and  representative,  he  thought  it  could  appeal  with  dignity 
and  success  for  its  completed  ecclesiastical  order  abroad, 
and  with  practical  and  reasonable  argument  for  its  right  to 
its  temporal  possessions  at  home.  If  Seabury  possessed  the 
legal  mind  of  the  movement,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  "  espe- 
cially the  parchments,"  and  William  Smith  represented  the 
practical  politician,  intent  to  gather  up  the  fragments  of 
glebe  and  parish  possession,  that  nothing  be  lost.  White 
may  justly  be  called  the  ecclesiastical  statesman  of  the 
time,  by  reason  of  the  broader  scope  of  his  purpose,  which 
contemplated  nothing  as  local,  but  everything  as  national. 
His  heart  beat  not  merely  as  a  churchman,  but  as  an 
American  who  foresaw  that  even  the  wheels  of  the  most 
complete  ecclesiastical  organization  would  never  move 
safely  and  aggressively  in  the  land  unless  impelled  by  a 
spirit  within  the  wheels  which  should  be  the  religious  ex^ 


300  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

pression  of  the  national  life.  The  spirit  of  freedom  in  the 
people  was  to  him  a  divine  spirit,  and  its  noble  aspirations 
and  regulative  exercise  were  to  be  conserved  as  forces  in 
the  kingdom  of  Christ.  He  meant  to  keep  that  kingdom 
true  to  its  Master,  and  from  the  hand  of  the  English 
mother  he  would  take  creed  and  liturgy  and  order.  Faith, 
worship,  and  discipline  (in  its  large  sense)  should  here 
stand  as  they  had  stood  in  the  past  ages.  He  also  meant 
to  make  Christ's  kingdom  true  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
new  realm  of  the  Republic,  and  mold  it  into  forms  which 
should  appeal  to  the  national  conscience  as  reasonable  and 
helpful,  in  harmony  with  a  government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  and  for  the  peopfe.  He  aimed,  therefore, 
from  the  beginning  to  make  it  in  its  organization  truly 
representative  of  all  estates  of  men  in  the  church.  The 
ministry  and  the  laity  were  to  take  sweet  counsel  together, 
and  to  walk  in  the  house  of  God  as  friends. 

Such  was  the  informing  spirit  of  this  first  publication  of 
"  The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  the  United  States 
Considered,"  and  it  was  the  spirit  of  all  the  subsequent 
work  of  actual  organization.  To  this  attempt  Dr.  White 
brought  the  forces  of  competent  learning  and  of  a  broad 
and  benignant  spirit  which  are  impressed  on  all  the  after- 
legislation.  He  was  both  firm  and  conciliatory.  His 
temper  was  irenic,  and  his  mind  fair  and  generous  enough 
to  recognize  both  the  honesty  and  worth  of  those  with 
whom  he  differed.  He  held  his  own  opinions  with  con- 
viction ;  yet  what  he  required  of  others  was  not  agreement, 
but  cooperation  in  the  practical  work  of  building  up 
Christ's  kingdom.  His  moderation  did  not  suffer  him  to 
be  immoderate  in  his  own  claims  upon  others  whom  he 
might  think  extreme.  He  was  a  man  of  the  type  of  Til- 
lotson,  and  fully  shared  in  his  spirit  of  comprehension. 
Ecclesiastically  he  was  in" agreement  with  the  Low-church- 


WHITE'S    VIEWS.  301 

men  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  but  his  temperament  and 
his  reHgious  experience  kept  him  from  sympathy  with  the 
more  fervid  and  exciting  methods  of  the  more  ardent 
evangeHcals  of  his  day.  In  theology  he  was  one  with 
them  in  his  opposition  to  the  theory  comprised  in  the 
words  "  priest,  altar,  sacrifice  "  ;  '  but  he  did  not  share  in 
their  tinge  of  Calvinism,  and  nurture  rather  than  conversion 
was  his  ideal  of  Christian  experience.  He  was  solicitous 
to  vindicate  the  rights  of  High-churchmen ;  and  his  inter- 
course with  Seabury  and  the  Eastern  clergy  of  his  type 
was  one  of  unfailing  courtesy  and  charity.  Unlike  Provoost, 
he  would  not  allow  differences  of  pohtical  conviction  to 
interfere  with  ecclesiastical  comity.  He  stood  for  the 
combination  of  all  schools  in  the  higher  unity  of  Christ's 
church.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  equipoise  of  this  clear 
mind  and  true  heart  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  diverse 
elements  of  Southern  and  Eastern  churchmanship  could 
have  all  been  combined  in  one  Episcopal  Church  for  the 
country.  The  rigidity  of  the  North  and  the  laxity  of  the 
South  seemed  to  confront  each  other  as  implacable  foes. 
But  this  man,  who  never  yielded  a  point  of  principle,  knew 
how  to  draw  into  practical  union  those  who  differed  so 
widely  both  in  temper  and  theory.  The  result  was  less 
one  of  compromise  than  of  mutual  recognition.  It  was  a 
commingling  of  centrifugal  and  centripetal  forces,  resulting 
in  coherence.  The  issue  was  a  system  of  liberty  protected 
by  law ;  and  the  final  ecclesiastical  constitution  which  re- 
sulted bears  the  impress  of  the  comprehensive  wisdom  and 
catholic  heart  of  him  from  whose  mind  it  originally  sprang. 
To  make  that  church  a  church  of  party  would  be  to 
contradict  the  spirit  of  its  origin.  It  was  framed  to  be  the 
hospitable  home  of  all  who  could  rest  on  its  fundamental 

1  See  article  of  Bishop  H.  U.  Onderdonk  in  "Annals  of  the  American 
Pulpit"  (Sprague),  vol,  v.,  p.  284. 


302  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

principles.  It  was  not  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  sect.  Its 
whole  effort  was  for  inclusion,  not  exclusion.  Its  govern- 
ment was  based  on  historic  facts,  not  on  ecclesiastical 
theory.  Its  theology  was  as  wide  as  the  creeds.  Its 
worship  strove  to  reproduce  the  treasures  of  devotion  from 
all  ages.  It  came  into  being  as  a  Catholic  body,  not  as 
distinct  from  a  Protestant  body,  but  as  inclusive  of  it ;  as 
catholic  in  its  protest  for  the  old  faith  of  the  gospel,  and 
therefore  against  the  outcroppings  of  superstitious  after- 
growths ;  for  the  old  order,  and  so  against  the  extrav- 
agances of  later  ecclesiastical  pretensions ;  for  true  wor- 
ship in  spirit  and  in  truth,  and  consequently  against  the 
intricate  technicalities  and  intrusive  directions  of  medie- 
val legislation. 

In  thus  following  the  English  Church  as  its  mother,  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  America  nevertheless  cut  loose  from 
all  that  entangled  it  with  the  state,  and  asserted  its  com- 
petency to  adjust  the  old  life  to  the  new  conditions  in  which 
it  found  itself  placed.  It  put  away  childish  subjection, 
but  ,it  retained  a  childlike  gratitude  and  love.  It  was 
transformed  from  a  daughter  into  a  sister  church ;  and  its 
action  gave  the  pattern  by  which  the  mother  church  her- 
self has  since  ordered  the  conditions  of  her  children  in  the 
colonies.  Upon  essentially  the  same  lines  as  White  laid 
down  in  the  permanent  part  of  "  The  Case  of  the  Episco- 
pal Churches  in  the  United  States  Considered,"  the  vast 
and  growing  churches  of  England's  colonies  have  been 
constructed.  English  ecclesiastics  of  high  position  have 
recognized  with  gratitude  their  debt  to  the  clear  and  far- 
seeing  wisdom  of  the  patriarch  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church ;  and  that  church  itself  is  indebted  for  its  harmo- 
nious working  at  home  and  its  peaceful  relations  abroad 
■  in  abounding  measure  to  him  whose  voice  was  first  heard 
summoning  the  churches  into  one  national  communion. 


THE  NAME  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     303 

ACTION    IN    MARYLAND. 

The  title  "Protestant  Episcopal  Church"  was  first 
applied  to  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Maryland  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  Revolution.  It  was  adopted  at  a  confer- 
ence of  the  clergy  and  laity  held  at  Chestertown,  Kent 
County,  Md.,  November  9,  1780.  This  conference  was 
called  by  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  shortly  after  his 
removal  to  the  State  from  Pennsylvania,  to  consider  the 
temporal  condition  of  the  churches  subsequent  to  the 
Vestry  Act  of  1779.^  It  consisted  of  three  clergymen  and 
twenty-four  laymen,  mostly  delegates  from  churches  in 
Kent  County.  Dr.  Smith  was  chosen  president.  At  his 
instigation  "A  Petition  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Mary- 
land for  the  Support  of  Public  Religion  "  was  prepared,  to 
be  submitted  to  the  several  parishes,  and,  when  approved, 
presented  to  the  Assembly.  It  asked  that  an  act  be  passed, 
in  accordance  with  the  Declaration  of  Rights  issued  by  the 
Assembly  (November,  1776),  empowering  the  vestry  and 
wardens  of  the  several  parishes  to  raise  money,  by  pew- 
rents  and  other  means,  to  restore  and  keep  in  repair  the 
church  property.  In  order  to  appear  as  an  ecclesiastical 
organization,  a  name  was  requisite.  To  speak  of  the 
Episcopal  body  as  the  Church  of  England  would  have 
been  repugnant  both  to  the  loyal  sentiment  and  the 
ecclesiastical  prejudice  of  the  province.  It  was  moved, 
therefore,  by  the  Rev.  James  Jones  Wilmer,  rector  of 
Shrewsbury  parish,  Kent  County,  "  that  the  Church  of 
England,  as  heretofore  so  known  in  the  province,  be  now 
called  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church."^  Dr.  Smith  is 
reputed  to  have  been  the  author  of  this  name,  and  very 
likely  he  suggested   it ;  but,  being  in   the  chair,  he  could 

1  See  chap,  iii.,  p.  82. 

2  See  "  Life  of  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.D.,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  39. 


364  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

not  propose  it.  The  motion  was  adopted ;  and  the  name 
made  its  way  everywhere  throughout  the  Episcopal  church, 
as  indicative  and  expressive  of  its  leading  peculiarities : 
Episcopal  as  distinguishing  it  from' the  presbyterial  or- 
ganization which  virtually  characterized  all  other  Prot- 
estant ecclesiastical  bodies,  and  Protestant  as  distinguished 
from  the  Church  of  Rome,  whose  regimen  was  also  episco- 
pal The  title  was  first  used  officially  by  a  representative 
body  of  the  church  in  a  "  Declaration  of  Certain  Fundamen- 
tal Rights  and  Liberties,"  issued  by  the  clergy  assembled 
in  Annapolis  in  1783.  The  occasion  of  this  convention 
was  as  follows :  After  the  declaration  of  peace.  Governor 
Paca,  in  May,  1 783,  called  the  notice  of  the  Assembly  to  the 
subject  of  religion,  and  recommended,  as  among  the  first 
objects  proper  for  consideration  on  the  return  of  peace,  an 
adequate  support  of  the  Christian  reHgion.^  Governor 
Paca  was  a  friend,  and  had  been  a  pupil,  of  Rev.  William 
Smith  at  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  in  1759,  and  he  retained  for  him  a  warm  regard. 
It  is  thought  that  the  address  to  the  Assembly  was  sug- 
gested and  urged  by  his  former  instructor,  who  was  now 
president  of  Washington  College,  Maryland.  This  college 
had  grown  out  of  a  classical  seminary  established  by  Dr. 
Smith  a  year  or  two  previously,  after  he  had  ceased  to  be 
provost  of  the  Academy  and  College  of  Philadelphia.  It 
had  received  its  charter  in  1782,  and  held  its  first  com- 
mencement May  13,  1783.  This  was  a  week  only  after 
the  governor's  address  had  been  delivered. 

At  this  commencement  a  number  of  the  Maryland 
clergy  were  assembled.  The  governor's  address  aroused 
great  interest  and  gave  rise  to  much  consultation.  The 
result  was  a  petition  to  the  legislature,  signed  on  behalf 
of  the  clergy  by  William  Smith  and  Thomas  Gates,  asking 

1  See  Hawks,  "  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,"  vol.  ii.,  "  Maryland,"  p.  291. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ACTION  IN  MARYLAND.  305 

for  leave  to  prepare  a  bill  which  should  enable  the  Episco- 
pal clergy,  without  losing  their  identity,  to  make  neces- 
sary alterations  in  the  liturgy  and  arrange  a  plan  for  the 
perpetuation  of  the  ministry  according  to  the  episcopal 
regimen. 

A  great  controversy  was  excited  by  the  proposal.  The 
odium  of  the  Establishment  clung  firmly  to  its  ecclesiasti- 
cal polity  ;  and  there  was  a  dread  lest  the  movement  might 
secure  a  legislative  recognition  which  would  involve  a 
quasi-union  of  the  Episcopal  Church  with  the  state,  to  the 
prejudice  of  other  religious  bodies.^  The  petition  was, 
however,  granted,  and  the  clergy  met  at  Annapolis  August 
I3>  1783,  to  consider  the  proposed  law.  They  prepared 
a  charter  of  incorporation  for  adoption  by  the  legislature, 
and  issued  a  "  Declaration  of  Certain  Fundamental  Rights 
and  Liberties."  In  this  "Declaration  "  the  church  in 
Maryland  claimed  to  have  an  independent  existence  apart 
from  any  connection  with  the  church  in  any  other  colony. 
It  asserted  the  right  for  the  church  to  act  on  the  belief 
"  that  there  be  these  three  orders  of  ministers  in  Christ's 
Church — Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons  "  ;  and  that  episco- 
pal ordination  was  essential  to  the  due  exercise  of  minis- 
terial functions  in  said  church.  It  declared  the  identity 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Maryland  with  the 
Church  of  England,  formerly  established  in  the  province, 
and  asserted  its  title  to  the  property  secured  to  the  Church 
of  England  by  the  Bill  of  Rights.  It  affirmed  the  right  of 
the  church  to  alter  the  liturgy  in  order  to  adapt  it  to  the 
circumstance  of  its  becoming  an  independent  church.  This 
was  the  first  occasion  on  which  the  title  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church  was  officially  used. 

All  the  eighteen  clergy  present  signed  the  "  Declara- 
tion," and  sent  it  to  the  governor  with  a  suitable  address. 

1  Hawks,  "  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  293. 


306  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xil. 

He  admitted  its  reasonableness,  and  promised  his  aid  to 
secure  its  provisions.  Owing  to  the  failure  of  the  legisla- 
ture to  meet,  no  legal  action  was  taken  on  the  proposed 
law  until  the  latter  part  of  1 784.  In  the  meantime,  in 
June,  1 784,  the  clergy  met  with  the  laity,  as  representa- 
tives of  the  several  churches,  to  revise  the  action  which 
had  been  taken  solely  by  the  clergy ;  and  the  laity, 
considering  the  "  Declaration  "  and  the  other  measures  in 
a  separate  session,  gave  their  unanimous  consent.  Here- 
upon a  joint  committee  of  both  orders  was  appointed  to 
devise  a  system  of  ecclesiastical  government,  to  define  the 
duties  of  the  clergy  in  matters  spiritual,  and  to  prescribe 
a  mode  of  discipline  for  both  clerical  and  lay  offenders. 
This  joint  committee  made  an  incomplete  report  indicating 
the  essential  features  of  their  scheme.  They  agreed  that 
any  one  ordained  by  a  foreign  bishop  must  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  State  of  Maryland  before  he  could  be 
admitted  into  or  enjoy  any  of  the  churches  or  glebes 
formerly  belonging  to  the  Church  of  England.  They 
affirmed  that  the  office  of  a  bishop  differs  only  from  that 
of  other  priests  in  the  power  of  ordination  and  confirmation 
and  the  right  of  precedence,  and  that  any  alteration  of 
these  positions  must  be  the  joint  action  of  clergy  and  laity. 
To  the  clergy  was  assigned  the  determination  of  the  valid- 
ity of  claims  to  ministerial  authority  and  commission,  to- 
gether with  the  decision  concerning  the  religious,  literary, 
and  moral  qualifications  of  candidates  for  orders.  To  the 
laity  was  accorded  the  sole  right  of  the  reception  of  min- 
isters into  the  parishes.  An  ecclesiastical  Convention  of 
clergy  and  laity  was  decreed  to  be  held  annually. 

It  was  as  the  result  of  this  presentment  by  clergy  and 
laity  alike  that  the  legislature,  in  the  latter  part  of  1784, 
passed  the  act  incorporating  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  the 
State  as  a  "  Society  for  the  relief  of  widows  and  children  of 


DR.    WILLIAM  SMITH  ELECTED  BISHOP.  307 

the  ministers  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  Mary- 
land." This  Act  of  Incorporation  is  the  only  law  passed 
at  this  time  in  recognition  of  the  church. 

We  now  return  to  the  Annapolis  Convention  of  August, 
1783.  One  of  its  most  significant  acts  was  the  election 
by  the  clergy,  of  whom  alone  it  was  composed,  of  Dr. 
William  Smith,  its  presiding  officer,  to  the  office  of  Bishop 
of  Maryland.  A  testimonial  was  prepared,  to  be  given  to 
the  Bishop  of  London  when  Dr.  Smith  should  apply  for 
consecration,  in  which  he  was  commended  as  a  fit  person, 
every  way  qualified  for  the  office.  The  Convention  also 
enacted  that,  until  such  time  as  a  regular  ordination  of 
clergymen  could  be  obtained,  three  clergymen  should  be 
appointed  in  each  shire  as  examiners  of  candidates  for  holy 
orders,  to  whom  they  might  give  certificates  as  lay  readers. 
By  these  acts  the  church  in  Maryland  claimed  to  have  a 
distinct,  independent  existence,  without  reference  to  any 
connection  with  the  church  in  any  other  colony. 

Though  Dr.  Smith  was  never  consecrated  bishop,  he 
was  so  influential  later  on  in  the  formation  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  church  that  an  account  of  his  career  forms  an 
essential  feature  of  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  his  time. 
He  was  a  Scotchman  of  good  family,  born  in  Aberdeen- 
shire about  1727,  .and  was  graduated  at  the  University  of 
Aberdeen  in  1747.  He  came  to  this  country  as  tutor  to 
the  two  sons  of  Colonel  Martin,  of  Long  Island,  in  1751. 
During  his  residence  of  two  years  in  New  York  he  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  with  the  title  "  A  General  Idea  of  the 
College  of  Moravia,"  intended  as  a  sketch  for  a  proposed 
college  in  New  York.  It  attracted  the  attention  of  Dr. 
Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  Rev.  Richard  Peters,  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  resulted  in  Smith's  appointment  as  provost  of 
the  newly  established  Academy  and  College  of  Philadel- 
phia in  1754.      In  the  meantime  he  had  returned  to  Eng- 


3o8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

land  for  holy  orders,  and  had  been  ordained  deacon,  in 
Fulham  Palace,  by  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  acting  on  behalf 
of  the  Bishop  of  London,  December  2i,  1753,  and  two 
days  afterward  was  ordained  priest,  in  the  same  place  and 
at  the  same  request,  by  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle.  "As  provost 
of  the  college  he  attained  later  a  wide  celebrity. 

His  talents  and  scholarship  were  such  that  in  1759  he 
was  made  Doctor  of  Divinity  by  the  University  of  Oxford, 
on  the  recommendation  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
and  other  prominent  bishops  of  the  English  Church.  The 
University  of  Aberdeen  and  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  sub- 
sequently conferred  the  same  honor  upon  him.  His  great 
interest  was  in  education,  but  he  also  acted  as  adviser  of 
the  Venerable  Society  in  regard  to  church  interests  in 
Pennsylvania.  He  was  a  man  of  enthusiastic  temperament 
and  of  generous  impulses,  and  became  noted  as  an  elo- 
quent preacher,  officiating  on  almost  all  public  occasions ; 
in  fact,  he  was  the  most  prominent  pulpit  orator  of  his  day. 
His  style  was  the  style  of  his  time :  Johnsonian  in  its  use 
of  magniloquent  words  and  high-sounding  phrases ;  inter- 
spersed with  classical  and  poetical  quotations ;  full  to 
repletion  with  an  ornate  rhetoric.  Through  all  this  oratori- 
cal glow,  however,  there  was  an  earnest  and  strong  purpose 
to  impress  the  truth  on  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those  who 
heard  him.^  His  ardor  often  got  the  better  of  his  discre- 
tion, and   brought  him  into  not  infrequent  collision  with 

1  Dr.  Smith  prepared  two  volumes  of  sermons  for  publication,  and  pur- 
posed publishing  five  volumes,  which  purpose  was  frustrated  by  his  death. 
His  biographer,  in  speaking  of  his  funeral  oration  in  honor  of  General  Mont- 
gomery, which  he  was  invited  to  deliver  before  Congress,  says  : 

"  The  opening  part  of  the  discourse  was  a  grand  review  from  classic  poets 
and  other  authors,  laying,  in  the  customs  of  the  Hebrews,  Egyptians,  Greeks, 
Romans,  etc.,  a  wide  foundation  for  honors  after  death  to  heroes  and  states- 
men. It  puts  you  in  mind  of  one  of  David's  large  pictures  in  the  Louvre, 
with  lines  of  tnbicines  and  long  trumpets,  of  the  lictor  and  his  fasces,  of 
standards  and  S.  P.  Q.  R.'s,  and  all  old  Rome  in  solemn  procession." 
C  Life  of  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.D.,"  vol.  i.,  p.  545.) 


PROVOST   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.D.  309 

opponents.  He  early  had  an  encounter  with  the  Quakers, 
who  sued  him  for  hbel,  and  later  he  lost  his  provostship  in 
a  violent  altercation  with  the  trustees  of  the  college.  He 
was  an  intense  antagonist  and  a  hard  hitter  in  contro- 
versy ;  but  he  did  not  cherish  malice,  and  often  became  a 
warm  friend  to  those  whom  he  had  opposed.  When  the 
war  came  on  he  was  open  and  constant  in  his  expression 
of  disapproval  of  the  measures  of  the  British  Parliament 
and  ministry,  declaring  them  unconstitutional,  unjust,  and 
unwise.  When,  however,  it  came  to  hostihties  he  was  not 
prepared  to  counsel  resistance,  though  he  acquiesced  in 
the  condition  of  affairs  after  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. His  sermon  preached  in  Christ  Church,  June  28, 
1775,  before  Congress  and  a  vast  concourse  of  people,  at 
the  request  of  the  mihtia  officers  of  Philadelphia,  produced 
an  immense  sensation.  It  was  entitled  "A  Sermon  on  the 
Present  Situation  of  American  Affairs."  It  ran  through 
many  American  editions,  was  translated  into  several  foreign 
languages,  and  the  chamberlain  of  London  ordered  ten 
thousand  copies  of  it  to  be  printed  at  his  expense  and  sold 
for  twopence  a  copy.  In  it  Smith  maintained  his  opposition 
to  British  measures,  characterized  the  doctrine  of  absolute 
non-resistance  as  absurd,  yet  declared  it  not  within  the 
province  of  the  ministers  of  Christ  "to  draw  the  line, 
and  say  where  submission  ends  and  resistance  begins." 
Though  general  and  evasive  in  its  conclusions  in  regard  to 
definite  measures,  this  sermon  greatly  stirred  patriotic  zeal, 
and  consequently  roused  the  ire  of  Governor  Tryon,  of 
New  York,  who  threatened  the  author  with  the  severe  cen- 
sure of  the  Bishop  of  London.  It  called  forth  the  encomium 
of  Dr.  Priestley  and  the  animadversion  of  John  Wesley. 
It  made  Dr.  Smith  a  famous  man  on  both  continents. 

He  continued  devoted  to  the  college  and  the  advance- 
ment of  its  interests  during  the  war,  until    1779,   when 


3IO  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

there  arose  a  distinct  opposition  to  the  institution,  based 
on  political  grounds.  Its  charter  was  changed,  and  Dr. 
Smith,  the  only  Episcopal  clergyman  among  the  professors, 
was  dismissed  from  the  provostship.  This  occasioned  the 
founding  of  the  Episcopal  Academy  in  Philadelphia.  It 
was  one  of  the  violent  acts  of  a  violent  time,  and  is  gener- 
ally supposed  to  have  been  aimed  at  the  provost,  whose 
popularity  and  influence  as  a  church  orator  were  not  grate- 
ful to  those  whose  political  principles  were  more  decided 
than  his  own.^  In  the  patriotic  fervor  of  the  time  it  was 
feared,  or  it  was  plausibly  assumed,  that  the  broad  foun- 
dation of  the  college  would  be  narrowed  into  a  Church  of 
England  institution.  After  the  Revoliition,  in  1789,  the 
charter  was  restored,  and  Dr.  Smith  again  became  provost. , 
In  the  meantime  he  had  removed  to  Maryland  and  founded 
his  new  institution  at  Chestertown.  In  one  year  he  col- 
lected ten  thousand  pounds  from  the  planters  of  the  eastern 
shore  of  Maryland  for  its  endowment,  General  Washington 
himself  contributing  fifty  guineas,  thus  testifying  to  his 
confidence  in  Smith's  patriotism.  As  we  have  seen,  at  the 
first  commencement  of  this  institution  in  1783,  Dr.  Smith 
started  the  series  of  Conventions  of  the  church  in  Mary- 
land which  had  so  strong  an  influence  on  the  later  forma- 
tion of  the  church,  and  first  gave  to  it  the  provincial  name 
which  afterward  became  the  national  designation. 

From  what  has  appeared  of  Dr.  Smith's  characteristics 
it  is  not  strange  that  with  his  learning,  his  natural  powers, 
and  his  financial  success  in  establishing  his  college,  he 
should  have  been  the  instant  and  unanimous  choice  of  the 
eighteen  Maryland  clergymen  for  their  first  bishop.  A 
man  of  such  distinction  at  home  and  abroad  at  once  tow- 
ered above  all  local  celebrities.      It  is  not  strange,  either, 

1  For  an  account  of  this  occurrence  see  "  Life  of  Rev.  William  Smith, 
D.D.,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  18;  also  Wilson,  "  Memoir  of  Bishop  White,"  p.  66. 


DR.  SMITH  AND    THE   MARYLAND  EPISCOPATE.    311 

that  he  should  have  had  opponents  as  well  in  those  less 
dominated  by  his  inspiring  personality.  The  laity  were 
not  so  enthusiastic  as  the  clergy  who  elected  him.  Many 
were  strongly  opposed  to  there  being  at  that  time  any 
bishop  in  Maryland.  Even  among  his  warm  personal 
friends  there  were  those  who  disapproved  of  his  election. 
Dr.  White  afterward  opposed  its  confirmation,  not  giving 
his  reasons ;  but  it  is  known  that  they  were  based  on  an 
estimate  of  his  character.  That  character  was  generous, 
but  not  prudent.  There  was  a  secularity  in  his  manner 
and  tone  of  thought  which  savored  more  of  worldly  wisdom 
than  of  devout  consecration.  He  was  convivial,  and  may 
have  at  times  lapsed  into  impropriety.  The  temporal 
rather  than  the  spiritual  concerns  of  the  church  engrossed 
his  attention.  In  controversy,  to  which  he  was  prone,  the 
old  Adam  often  got  the  better  of  the  young  Melanchthon. 
He  was  not,  however,  self-seeking.  The  opposition  which 
he  made  to  Dr.  Seabury's  consecration  by  the  nonjuring 
bishops,  if  it  had  its  personal  element,  was  also  caused  by 
the  fear  that  such  a  procedure  would  shut  the  door  to  the 
application  for  the  English  succession.  This  result  would 
have  greatly  diminished  the  prestige  of  the  national  church, 
and  given  it  a  provincial  aspect  and  character,  marking  it 
as  distinct  from  the  English  Church,  rather  than  as  its 
legitimate  successor.  Dr.  Smith  may  himself  have  been 
convinced  of  the  inappropriateness  of  his  own  election  to 
the  episcopate.  Certain  it  is  that  he  never  applied  for  con- 
secration in  England,  though  his  election  and  testimonials 
from  his  State  were  above  suspicion.  When  his  election 
was  not  confirmed  by  the  General  Convention  which  gave 
its  imprimatur  to  White  and  Provoost  and  Griffith,  his  dis- 
appointment did  not  sour  him.  He  continued  to  be  one  of 
the  most  indefatigable  workers  in  the  construction  of  the 
ecclesiastical  organization  in  which  he  was  not  to  be  a  chief 


312  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap,  xii. 

officer.  He  was  a  co-laborer  with  White  in  all  his  efforts, 
and  preserved  a  steadfast  friendship  for  him,  notwith- 
standing his  opposition  to  his  consecration.  Prejudiced  at 
first  against  Seabury,  both  on  account  of  his  ecclesiastical 
views  and  his  Scotch  consecration,  he  was  the  chief  mover 
in  the  measures  which  recognized  the  validity  of  his  con- 
secration and  brought  him  into  union  with  the  General 
Convention.  But  both  his  good  quahties  and  his  defects 
were  such  as  to  wisely  exclude  him  from  the  episcopate. 


ACTION    IN    CONNECTICUT. 

No  sooner  had  Connecticut  received  the  news  of  the 
preliminary  treaty  acknowledging  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  than  the  church  clergy  became  alert.  A 
month  before  the  formal  proclamation  of  peace,  in  the  last 
week  of  March,  1783,  ten  of  the  fourteen  missionaries  in 
the  State  came  together  in  a  quiet  and  secret  conclave  at 
Woodbury.  Theymet  at  thehouseofthe  Rev.  John  Rutgers 
Marshall,  missionary,  and  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church  in 
that  place,  to  deliberate  on  the  present  affairs  of  the  church 
and  to  organize  for  the  future.  No  minutes  of  the  meet- 
ing were  kept,  for  the  business  which  they  had  in  hand 
was  deemed  perilous.  It  has  transpired  since  that,  with- 
out going  into  a  formal  election,  they  selected  two  persons, 
Rev.  Jeremiah  Leaming  and  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  as 
suitable,  either  of  them,  to  go  to  England  and  secure,  if 
possible,  episcopal  consecration.  Mr.  Jarvis,  who  acted 
as  secretary,  was  deputed  to  go  to  New  York  and  consult 
the  clergy  there  and  secure  their  concurrence.  He  was 
directed  to  prevail  on  one  or  other  of  the  two  candidates, 
who  were  both  in  that  province,  to  accept  the  appointment. 
Mr.  Leaming  at  once  declined  on  account  of  his  age  and 


SEA  BURY,  BISHOP  ELECT  OF  CONNECTICUT.        313 

infirmities,  and  Mr.  Seabury,  by  the  advice  of  the  clergy, 
consented. 

Seabury  was  a  native  of  Connecticut,  born  while  his  father 
was  yet  a  Congregational  licentiate.  He  was  reared  in 
the  colony,  on  Long  Island  once  claimed  by  it,  and  he 
was  a  graduate  of  Yale  College.  His  ministry  had  been 
exercised  outside  of  Connecticut,  in  New  Jersey,  on  Long 
Island,  and  at  Westchester,  N.  Y.  ;  and  he  had  served, 
also,  during  the  war  as  chaplain  in  the  British  army,  being 
appointed  in  1778,  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  chaplain  to  the 
king's  American  regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel  Fan- 
ning. By  his  character,  his  churchmanship,  and  his  politi- 
cal convictions  he  was  a  fair  representative  of  the  Con- 
necticut clergy.  He  was  their  fitting  choice ;  and  his 
nomination  was  conducted  according  to  his  own  principles, 
and  was  a  strictly  clerical  one.^  He  was  a  man  possessed 
of  a  clear  vision,  if  not  of  the  very  widest  horizon.  He 
saw  with  distinctness  what  fell  under  his  observation ;  and 
a  duty  once  discerned  called  out  a  pertinacity  of  effort  to 
accomplish  it  which  eminently  fitted  him  for  the  trying 
and  difficult  task  now  laid  upon  him. 

In  that  time  of  doubtful  prospects  everywhere,  and  of 
unsettled  ecclesiastical  principles  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  it  was  fortunate  that  one  so  completely  convinced 
of  both  the  righteousness  and  the  necessity  of  his  mission 
should  have  been  found  to  act  as  pioneer  in  the  search  for 
the  episcopate.     That  one  thing  he  would  do.     The  man- 

1  It  has  been  suggested  by  Dr.  McConnell,  in  his  brilliant  "  History  of 
the  American  Episcopal  Church,"  that  the  laity  were  excluded  from  these 
proceedings  out  of  regard  for  their  safety.  But  the  whole  tone  of  Connect- 
icut churchmanship,  until  a  much  later  period,  was  adverse  to  the  admission 
of  laymen  to  church  councils.  The  thought  of  admitting  them  to  their  delib- 
erations probably  occurred  to  no  one  of  the  clergy  assembled  at  Woodbury. 
The  whole  transaction  exhibits  both  the  moral  fiber  and  the  stanch  ecclesiastical 
character  of  the  missionaries,  whose  claims  concerning  clerical  prerogatives 
were  never  in  the  least  doubtful. 


314  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

ifold  necessities  of  the  ecclesiastical  situation  did  not  pre- 
sent themselves  to  his  mind  as  to  the  mind  of  White ;  nor 
had  he  anything  like  the  same  statesmanlike  grasp  of  the 
national  relations  of  the  church  as  that  great  man  who 
chiefly  drew  up  its  constitution.  But  he  had  an  eye 
single  to  the  one  feature  of  the  ecclesiastical  regimen  which 
could  alone  give  coherence  and  vigor  to  its  life,  however 
constituted  and  controlled.  For  him  it  could  never  exist 
as  a  torso.  A  head  must  be  given  to  its  members,  how- 
ever feeble  or  ill  regulated,  and  then  it  could  take  measures 
for  growth  and  advance.  It  is  not  open  to  doubt  that, 
apart  from  the  matter  of  principle,  as  a  matter  of  ex- 
pediency, he  was  right.  No  body  could  have  a  healthy 
self-respect,  or  that  consciousness  of  power  and  resource 
essential  to  its  maintenance  and  increase,  which  must  be 
dependent  for  the  exercise  of  its  chief  functions  on  sources 
outside  itself.  Nor  is  it  doubtful  that  the  gaining  of  his 
episcopate  at  the  hands  of  the  nonjuring  bishops  of  Scot- 
land, for  an  unformed  diocese  of  a  few  clergy  in  a  small 
State,  was  a  potent  element  in  opening  the  way  for  the 
bestowal  of  the  English  consecration  upon  the  bishops 
who  came  later,  bent  on  the  formation  of  a  national  Epis- 
copal communion. 

Dr.  Seabury  was  authorized,  in  case  he  failed  to  gain 
consecration  in  England,  to  apply  to  the  nonjuring  bishops 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Scotland.  He  went  out  fully 
equipped  with  documents  to  the  English  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  which  so  forcibly  stated  the  case  and  so 
eloquently  urged  it  as  to  deserve  better  success  than  they 
secured.  Sailing  early  in  June,  1783,  on  Admiral  Digby's 
flag-ship,  he  arrived  in  London  July  7th,  several  months 
before  the  royal  troops  evacuated  New  York.  He  pro- 
ceeded with  all  diligence  to  present  his  testimonials  and 
letters  testifying  to  his  election,  and  urging  his  consecration. 


SEA  BURY  SEEKING   CONSECRATION: 


315 


These  consisted  chiefly  of  a  letter  written  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  on  behalf  of  the  Connecticut  clergy,  by 
Abraham  Jarvis,  who  had  been  secretary  of  their  Conven- 
tion;  a  testimonial  testifying  to  Dr.  Seabury's  election  and 
qualification  for  the  office  of  a  bishop,  signed  on  the  same 
date  as  the  letter  (April  21,  1783),  by  the  clergy  in  New 
York  who  had  been  consulted  in  the  matter,  namely, 
Jeremiah  Leaming,  D.D.,  one  of  the  two  designated  by 
the  Connecticut  clergy  as  a  fit  nominee,  Dr.  Inglis,  rector, 
and  Dr.  Benjamin  Moore,  assistant  minister,  of  Trinity 
Church;  and  a  long  letter  of  the  same  signatures  to  the 
Archbishop  of  York,  dated  May  24th. 

Longer  epistles  of  the  same  character,  but  of  later  date, 
were  addressed  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  that  see 
having  been  vacant  when  the  first  letters  were  written. 
These  communications  urged  the  paramount  necessity  of 
laying  the  foundation  of  a  valid  and  regular  episcopate  in 
America ;  expressed  dissatisfaction  and  rejection  of  the 
plan,  published  in  Philadelphia,  to  constitute  a  nominal 
episcopate  by  the  united  suffrages  of  presbyters  and  lay- 
men, which  had  been  proposed  and  justified  on  the  plea 
of  the  impossibility  of  securing  bishops ;  pointed  out  that 
opposition  to  an  American  episcopate,  on  the  part  of  non- 
Episcopalians,  had  declined  since  the  acknowledgment  of 
independence  had  deprived  it  of  any  political  character; 
and  urged  that  the  various  legacies  which  had  been  left 
for  the  support  of  bishops  in  America  should  be  appropri- 
ated to  the  maintenance  of  Dr.  Seabury,  in  case  of  his 
consecration.  The  communication  from  New  York  also 
commended  the  Rev.  Dr.  T.  B.  Chandler,  formerly  of 
Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  for  appointment  to  the  bishopric  of  Nova 
Scotia.^ 

1  The  Rev.  Dr.  Chandler  was  later  fixed  upon  for  the  first  Bishop  of  Nova 
Scotia,  but,  by  reason  of  ill  health,  he  was  obliged  to  decline  the  appointment. 


3l6  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xii. 

Dr.  Seabury  was  politely  received  by  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  in  England  ;  but  the  action  urged  upon  them 
by  the  letters  and  testimonial  was  delayed  on  account  of 
objections  drawn  both  from  English  law  and  American 
opinion.  The  entanglement  .of  the  church  with  the  state 
finally  defeated  the  proposed  measure.  The  oaths  in  the 
Ordination  Office,  imposed  by  act  of  Parliament,  could  not, 
it  was  decided,  be  omitted  by  the  sole  dispensation  of  the 
king;  and  Parliament,  though  it  decreed  permission  to  the 
bishops  to  ordain  priests  and  deacons  for  foreign  countries, 
drew  the  line  there,  and  refused  to  empower  them  to  con- 
secrate bishops  without  requiring  the  customary  oaths  of 
allegiance.  The  bishops  required,  also,  the  consent  of  the 
State  of  Connecticut  that  a  bishop  should  reside  within  its 
borders  before  they  could  presume  to  accede  to  what 
might  be  deemed  an  act  of  political  intrusion.  This  last 
point  was  completely  cleared  up  by  the  prompt  and  self- 
sacrificing  action  of  Dr.  Seabury,  who  at  once  wrote  to  his 
friends  to  apply  to  the  proper  authority  for  permission  to 
have  a  bishop  reside  in  the  State,  and  offered  to  surren- 
der his  claim  to  that  office  in  favor  of  any  presbyter  less 
obnoxious  to  the  public,  saying,  "  The  State  of  Connecti- 
cut may  consent  that  a  bishop  should  reside  among  them, 
though  they  might  not  consent  that  I  should  be  the  man." 

The  committee,  consisting  of  Messrs.  Teaming,  Jarvis, 
and  Hubbard,  appointed  by  the  clergy  in  convention  at 
Wallingford  to  attend  to  this  matter,  were  assured  that  no 
special  act  of  the  Assembly  was  needed  in  the  case ;  that, 
if  a  bishop  came,  he  would  stand,  by  the  provisions  of  the 
law,  upon  the  same  grounds  as  the  rest  of  the  clergy  or  the 


On  his  recommendation  the  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Inglis,  who  had  nominated  him 
for  the  post,  was  appointed  and  consecrated,  and  the  funds  designated  for 
the  support  of  bishops  in  America,  by  both  legacy  and  gift  in  England,  were 
appropriated  to  this  first  colonial  bishopric. 


OBSTACLES  IN  SEABURV'S    IV AY.  317 

church  at  large.  Certified  copies  of  the  law  which  had 
been  passed,  "  embracing  the  church  and  comprehending 
all  the  legal  rights  and  powers  intended  to  be  given  to  any 
denomination  of  Christians,"  were  sent  to  Seabury  by  the 
committee  and  used  by  him,  but,  so  far  as  he  was  con- 
cerned, used  in  vain. 

There  was  at  this  stage  of  proceedings  no  disentangling 
the  political  from  the  ecclesiastical  relations  of  the  episco- 
pate in  the  minds  of  bishops  appointed  by  the  crown.  The 
apprehension  of  the  civil  rulers,  also,  of  giving  umbrage 
to  a  power  with  whom  a  treaty  of  peace  had  just  been 
signed  stayed  their  hand  in  opening  the  way  for  the  bish- 
ops to  act.  Without  the  formal  request,  or  at  least  consent, 
of  Congress,  the  ministry  refused  to  permit  a  bishop  to 
be  consecrated  for  any  of  the  United  -States.  Parliament 
adjourned,  and  no  enabling  act  had  been  passed.  Seabury 
had  now  been  in  England  over  a  year.  He  could  not 
anticipate  either  a  speedy  or  a  favorable  action  of  the  great 
powers,  temporal  or  spiritual.  Mindful  of  his  instructions 
at  home,  he  proceeded  to  Scotland  to  lay  his  case  before 
the  nonjuring  bishops  of  that  realm.  The  vi^ay  had  been 
prepared  for  his  favorable  reception. 

The  Rev.  George  Berkeley,  prebendary  of  Canterbury 
and  son  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  of  Cloyne,  who  when  dean 
had  visited  America,  shared  his  father's  enthusiasm,  and 
earnestly  desired  to  see  the  Episcopal  Church  fully 
equipped  and  established  in  the  Western  continent.  In 
1782,  before  the  effort  for  organization  in  Connecticut  had 
been  begun,  he  had  written  to  the  Scotch  presbyter  of 
Aberdeen,  who,  at  the  time  of  Seabury 's  application,  had 
become  Bishop  Skinner,  suggesting  that  the  suffering 
church  of  Scotland  might  confer  great  benefit  on  the  suf- 
fering church  in  America.  Later  he  wrote  again,  directly 
suggesting  and  urging  the  sending  of  bishops  from  Scot- 


3l8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

land  to  American  churchmen,  who  could  not  obtain  the 
gift  from  England.  Bishop  Skinner  did  not  give  an 
enthusiastic  reception  to  such  suggestions,  but  attention 
and  sympathy  were  awakened  by  them.  There  was, 
indeed,  in  the  respective  fortunes  or  misfortunes  of  the 
two  bodies  much  to  attract  them  to  each  other. 

The  nonjuring  bishops  of  Scotland  were  the  successors 
of  those  English  bishops  who,  in  1688,  refused  to  disown 
James  II.  and  take  the  oath  to  William  III.,  and  hence 
were  called  "  nonjurors."  They  had  been  in  successive 
generations  ardent  Jacobites  or  adherents  of  the  Stuarts. 
They  had  lost  establishment  under  William  by  their  politi- 
cal rejection  of  him  as  king,  and  their  proscription  was 
made  more  severe  and  bitter  after  the  risings  of  171 5  and 
1745  in  behalf  of  the  respective  pretenders.  Of  these  ris- 
ings the  Episcopalians  were  the  essential  leaven,  and  as 
political  insurgents  they  were  denounced  and  persecuted. 
Their  chapels  were  burned.  It  became  penal  for  more 
than  five  of  them  to  gather  together  for  worship,  for  no 
sedition  was  to  be  bred  of  their  religious  assemblies.  For 
Episcopalians,  loyal  to  the  actual  sovereign,  clergymen  of 
English  orders  were  supplied,  and  the  Episcopal  household 
in  Scotland  was  divided  against  itself.  The  two  parties 
were  alien  in  sympathy,  and  in  a  measure  in  worship,  two 
varying  liturgies  being  used.  The  English  were  regarded 
by  the  Scotch  as  ecclesiastical  intruders ;  the  Scotch  by 
the  English  as  political  rebels.  Twenty  years  after  the 
last  political  rising  of  1 745  the  intensity  of  this  party  feel- 
ing became  somewhat  relaxed,  and  the  relations  of  the  two 
ecclesiastical  bodies  were  from  this  time  on  somewhat  less 
strained.  A  revised  form  of  the  liturgy  of  the  nonjurors, 
being  a  close  approximation  to  the  first  Prayer-book  of 
Edward  VI.,  was  prepared,  and  accepted  for  general  use 
in  1 764.    The  oppressive  state  laws,  without  being  revoked, 


THE   NONJURING  BISHOPS   OF  SCOTLAND.  319 

were  not  enforced.  Congregations  met  quietly,  but  in 
such  numbers  as  they  could  gather. 

With  such  a  history  behind  them,  it  required  courage 
backed  by  principle  for  the  church  of  the  nonjurors  to 
deliberately  resolve  to  do  what  the  English  hierarchy  had 
refused,  or  had  not  been  empowered  by  the  state,  to  do. 
No  wonder  that  Bishop  Skinner  at  first  hung  back  from 
George  Berkeley's  proposition.  'To  act  might  disturb  and 
dissipate  the  comparative  peace  now  enjoyed.  He  wrote, 
in  reply  to  the  prebendary's  appeal :  "  The  enemies  of  our 
church  might  make  a  handle  of  our  correspondence  with 
the  colonies  as  a  proof  that  we  always  wished  to  fish  in 
troubled  waters ;  and  we  have  little  need  to  give  any 
ground  for  an  imputation  of  that  kind."  But  it  soon  be- 
came evident  that  if  there  were  to  be  an  American  bishop 
the  nonjurors  must  consecrate  him.  The  English  Church 
in  Scotland  was  as  much  tied  and  bound  by  Parliament  as 
the  Established  Church  in  England.  Thus  it  was  that 
Seabury  turned  his  face  toward  Aberdeen,  where,  and  in 
the  neighboring  Highlands,  the  nonjurors  were  to  be 
chiefly  found.  He  had  likely  enough  become  acquainted 
with  the  church  when,  as  a  young  man,  in  1752,  waiting 
to  attain  the  proper  age  to  obtain  orders,  he  had  studied 
medicine  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  The  similarity 
between  the  situations  of  the  two  churches  has  been  well 
pointed  out : 

"  Both  churches  had,  through  their  political  situation, 
been  driven  to  emphasize  strongly  the  divine  side  of  epis- 
copacy. They  both  had  their  homes  in  the  midst  of  a 
hostile  Presbyterian  community.  They  had  each  been 
trained  to  recognize  a  king  who  was  hateful  to  their  fellow- 
citizens.  The  people  in  both  cases  had  learned  to  live 
their  religious  lives  apart  from  the  people  among  whom 
they  lived.     They  were  not  readily  touched  by  the  spirit 


320  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  XII. 

of  their  time  and   place.     Their  spirit,  at   its  best,   was 
serene,  assured,  self-contained."  * 

When  George  Berkeley  heard  that  Dr.  Seabury  had 
reached  England  in  search  of  orders,  he  reopened  his  cor- 
respondence with  Bishop  Skinner,"  urging  the  Scotch 
bishops  to  act  in  his  case,  and  assuring  them  that  "  they 
need  anticipate  no  opposition  from  the  English  govern- 
ment." As  to  the  American  government,  he  added, 
"  The  Episcopal  Church  of  Scotland  cannot  be  suspected 
of  aiming  at  supremacy  of  any  kind  over  any  people." 
The  last  proposition  was  sufficiently  evident,  and  the  first 
came  from  good  authority  ;  so  that  now  the  Scotch  bishops 
expressed  their  warm  approbation  of  the  new  proposal; 
and  when  Dr.  Seabury's  distinct  application  came  to  them 
they  were  ready  to  grant  it.  This  application  he  made 
through  his  friend.  Dr.  Myles  Cooper,  his  fellow-loyalist, 
to  whom  he  addressed  a  letter  from  London,  dated  August 
31,  1784.  In  this  letter  3  he  gave  his  reasons  for  first 
applying  to  the  EngHsh  bishops,  explaining  that  it  in- 
volved no  doubt  of  the  equal  validity  of  Scotch  orders, 
which,  he  assured  them,  all  the  clergy  of  Connecticut,  as 
well  as  himself,  cordially  acknowledged.  He  assured 
them  of  the  equal  position  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
Connecticut  with  other  religious  denominations.  He 
showed  that  the  statistics  of  the  church  in  that  State  gave 
to  it  forty  congregations  and  forty  thousand  adherents, 
and  informed  them  that  the  legislature  knew  that  a  bishop 
had  been  applied  for,  and  who  had  been  chosen,  and  had 
made  no  objection,  and  would  not  needlessly  aflfront  so 
large  a  body  of  the  citizens  by  so  doing.  He  did  not 
plead  the  possession  of  an  endowment,  but  he  did  plead 

•  1  McConnell,  "  History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,"  p.  138. 

2  Wilberforce,  "  History  of  the  American  Church,"  p.  153. 

3  Bearclsley,  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Samuel  Seabury,  D.D.,"  p.  136. 


SEABURY'S  APPLICATION    TO    THE  NONJURORS.    32 1 

the  pressure  of  poverty  as  a  reason  for  their  speedy  deci- 
sion ;  and  he  made  a  suggestion  that  must  have  touched 
them  strongly  when,  toward  the  end  of  his  letter,  he  said, 
"  Perhaps  for  this  cause,  among  others,  God's  providence 
has  supported  them,  and  continued  their  succession  under 
various  and  great  difficulties:  that  a  free,  valid,  and  purely 
ecclesiastical  episcopacy  may  from  them  pass  into  the 
-Western  world." 

The  consent  of  the  bishops  was  hardly  gained  when  an 
objection  was  started  from  an  unexpected  quarter.  Dr. 
William  Smith,  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  who  had  been  or- 
dained together  with  Dr.  Seabury  to  the  priesthood,  and 
who,  at  the  present  time,  was  head  of  Washington  College, 
Maryland,  had  been  elected  Bishop  of  Maryland  August, 
1783,  just  a  year  before.  He  had  received  letters  com- 
mendatory to  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  hearing  of  the 
application  of  Seabury  to  the  nonjurors,  feared  that  if 
action  were  taken  it  might  still  further  complicate  matters 
in  England  and  prevent  his  consecration  by  the  English 
bishops.  Through  his  cousin,  then  resident  in  London, 
he  sent  a  protest  against  the  proposed  consecration,  stating 
that  Seabury's  political  course  in  America  would  render 
episcopacy  suspected  there,  and  asserting  that  the  action 
proposed  was  "  against  the  earnest  and  sound  advice  of 
the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  York."  This  protest 
made  little  impression  in  comparison  with  the  impression 
made  by  Seabury's  own  person  and  presence,  for  he  was 
a  man  after  the  nonjurors'  own  heart.  As  regarded  the 
position  of  the  archbishops,  George  Berkeley  undertook 
to  make  that  clear,  writing  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury of  the  proposed  action,  and  asking  a  reply  in  case  of 
serious  objections,  stating  that  no  reply  would  be  con- 
strued favorably.     No  reply  came  and  the  coast  was  clear. 

Previous  to   this  last    ecclesiastical  flurry  the    primus. 


322  PROTESTANr  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xii. 

Robert  Kilgour,  had  written,^  at  the  beginning  of  Octo- 
ber, that  the  Scotch  bishops  were  willing  to  comply  with 
Seabury's  proposal,  "  to  clothe  him  with  the  episcopal 
character,  and  thereby  convey  to  the  Western  world  the 
blessings  of  a  free,  valid,  and  purely  ecclesiastical  episco- 
pacy, not  doubting  that  he  will  so  agree  with  us  in  doctrine 
and  discipline  as  that  he,  and  the  church  under  his  charge 
in  Connecticut,  will  hold  communion  with  us  and  the 
church  here  in  catholic  and  primitive  principles."  Aber- 
deen was  fixed  upon  for  the  place  of  consecration,  and  the 
time  was  left  to  Dr.  Seabury  to  decide.  He  at  once  sent 
his  answer,  conveying  his  thanks  for  their  consent,  prom- 
ising, so  far  as  his  influence  could  extend,  to  establish  the 
most  liberal  intercourse  and  union  between  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  Scotland  and  that  in  America,  and  appointing 
November  loth  as  the  time  of  his  arrival  in  Aberdeen. 

Immediately  on  his  arrival,  arrangements  were  made  for 
his  consecration.  It  took  place  November  14,  1784,  being 
a  Sunday,  in  the  chapel,  which  was  formed  out  of  the 
upper  rooms  of  the  house  of  the  coadjutor  Bishop  of 
Aberdeen,  Dr.  Skinner.  It  was  situated  in  Longacre,  a 
narrow  lane  of  the  city,  where  public  carriages  never 
passed."  Though  the  severe  penal  laws  had  fallen  into 
disuse,  and  larger  assemblies  than  the  four  persons  from 
outside  the  household  could  now  meet  undisturbed,  the 
idea  of  erecting  an  ostensible,  church-like  place  of  worship 
was  not  to  be  thought  of  by  the  Scotch  Episcopalians. 
Thus,  though  in  a  sequestered  corner,  "  the  service  was 
performed  in  the  presence  of  a  considerable  number  of 

1  The  letter  was  addressed  to  Rev.  John  Allen,  of  Edinburgh,  by  Dr. 
Cooper,  who  had  forwarded  the  request  of  Seabury  to  the  Scotch  bishops. 

2  This  building  was  demolished  in  1 794,  and  on  its  site  was  erected  a  new 
chapel,  which  was  sold  to  the  Wesleyans  in  181 7,  when  the  Kpiscopal  con- 
gregation removed  to  St.  Andrew's  Church  in  King's  Street.  The  Wesleyans 
have  since  abandoned  it  as  a  house  of  worship,  and  when  the  author  visited  the 
place  In  1891  he  found  it  used  as  a  china-store.     It  was  never  consecrated. 


SEABURY'S   CONSECRATION  AT  ABERDEEN.        323 

respectable  clergymen  and  a  great  number  of  laity."  The 
consecrator  was  Robert  Kilgour,  primus,  assisted  by 
Arthur  Petrie,  the  Bishop  of  Ross  and  Morny,  and  John 
Skinner,  the  coadjutor  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  who  preached 
the  sermon  on  the  occasion.^  In  view  of  all  the  past  and 
of  all  the  future  it  was  a  significant  moment.  The  act 
secured  at  least  two  great  results  of  far-reaching  influence. 
In  and  through  its  eff"ect  upon  England  it  undoubtedly 
hastened  the  Enabling  Act,  whereby  the  English  bishops 
were  empowered  to  convey  the  episcopate  to  America  and 
give  the  stamp  of  national  character  to  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.  In  its  effect  upon  America  it  saved  it 
from  the  chaos  of  a  continued  acephalous  condition,  and 
secured  to  it  the  incomparable  Communion  Office,  through 
the  influence  of  Seabury,  which  both  restores  the  primitive 
completeness  of  the  service  and  guards  it  sedulously  from 
the  Roman  error  of  transubstantiation. 

Bishop  Seabury,  as  soon  as  possible  after  his  consecra- 
tion, made  arrangements  for  his  return  to  his  home,  which 
was  now  to  be  his  diocese.^  He  did  not  sail,  however,  for 
six  months  ;  but  he  made  good  use  of  the  interval.  On  the 
day  after  his  consecration  he  signed  a  concordat  ^  with  the 
bishops  who    had  consecrated    him,   which    pledged    full 

1  The  sermon  preached  by  Bishop  Skinner  was  pulihshed  both  in  England 
and  Scotland,  and  aroused  much  attention  and  animadversion  because  of  its 
seeming  reflections  on  the  Church  of  England,  in  its  assertion,  in  a  note, 
that  the  Scotch  church  was  wont  to  pay  more  attention  to  "  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  than  to  the  acts  of  Parliament."  There  were  sharp  criticisms 
upon  it  by  Bishop  Lowth  and  the  Rev.  George  (afterward  Bishop)  Gleig  and 
others.  It,  however,  undoubtedly,  aroused  the  attention  of  Englishmen  to 
the  unnecessary  oppression  of  the  Scotch  Episcopal  Church,  which  led  to  the 
repeal  of  the  penal  laws  in  1792. 

2  Bishop  Seabury  preached  in  the  afternoon  of  the  day  of  his  consecration, 
in  the  chapel  where  he  received  his  orders,  and  made  a  favoral^le  impression 
by  his  earnestness,  at  the  same  time  startling  the  congregation  by  the  energy 
of  his  delivery,  as  "  he  used  more  gesture  than  was  common  in  Scotland,  and 
waved  a  white  handkerchief  while  he  preached."  (See  Beardsley,  "  Life  and 
Correspondence  of  Samuel  Seabury,  D.D.,"  p.  157.)' 

^  See  Appendix  A. 


324  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xil. 

communion  between  the  two  churches  of  which  they  were 
the  respective  heads,  on  the  basis  of  their  common  faith, 
and  contained  a  promise  of  the  new  prelate  to  endeavor 
all  he  consistently  could  with  peace  and  prudence  to  cause 
the  Communion  Office  of  the  church  in  Connecticut  to  con- 
form to  that  of  the  church  in  Scotland.  There  was  a  cer- 
tain implied  promise,  also,  that  when  in  Scotland  he  should 
not  hold  communion  in  public  service  with  those  ordained 
by  an  English  or  Irish  bishop,  whom  the  Scotch  bishops 
looked  upon  as  schismatical  intruders.  This  is  a  water-mark 
in  the  document,  which  shows  not  merely  the  scar  still 
quivering  from  the  ill  usage  which  the  Scotch  Episcopa- 
lians had  received,  but  also  indicates  the  sturdy  self- 
consciousness  and  respect  which  lived  in  the  hearts  of 
those  who  ventured  to  do  what  English  bishops  could  not 
do,  and  who  endeavored  to  impress  on  the  church  in 
America  a  peculiar  stamp  of  their  own  which  the  English 
Church  lacked.  Armed  with  this  concordat,  with  his  let- 
ter of  consecration,  and  a  letter  from  the  Scotch  bishops 
to  the  clergy  of  Connecticut,  Bishop  Seabury  went  on  his 
way. 

Before  going  to  London  he  stopped  with  his  old  loyalist 
friend.  Dr.  Myles  Cooper,  at  Edinburgh,  and  there  wrote 
a  letter  to  Rev.  Jonathan  Boucher,  which  showed  a  more 
candid  and  larger  view  of  the  situation  than  might  have 
been  expected,  and  indicated  that  he  intended  to  rule  his 
diocese  as  "  in  the  communion  of  the  Catholic  Church," 
rather  than  as  the  . offspring  of  a  Scotch  provincialism.^ 

1  "  His  Grace  of  Canterbury  apprehended  that  my  obtaining  consecration 
in  Scotland  would  create  jealousies  and  seditions  in  the  church,  that  the  Mo- 
ravian bishops  in  America  would  be  hereby  induced  to  ordain  clergymen,  and 
that  the  Philadelphia  clergy  would  be  encouraged  to  carry  into  effect  their 
plan  of  constituting  a  nominal  episcopacy  by  the  joint  suffrages  of  clergymen 
and  laymen. 

"  But  when  it  is  considered  that  the  Moravian  bishops  cannot  ordain  clergy- 
men of  our  church  unless  requested  so  to  do,  and  that  when  there  shall  be  a 


BISHOP  SEA  BURY  AND    CHARLES    WESLEY.        325 

He  wrote  from  London  to  his  clergy  in  Connecticut  as 
soon  as  he  could  make  definite  arrangements  for  his  de- 
parture, which  he  found  could  not  be  until  spring.  He 
corresponded  with  the  Venerable  Society,  concerning  the 
continuance  of  his  own  and  the  other  missionaries'  sti- 
pends, and  found  that  by  the  constitution  of  that  society 
no  help  could  in  future  be  expected,  as  it  was  empowered 
by  its  charter  to  assist  missionaries  only  in  the  colonies  of 
Great  Britain.  He  had  interesting  interviews  with  Dr. 
Inglis  and  Rev.  Jacob  Duche,  both  of  whom  had  left  their 
charges  in  America  on  account  of  their  loyalty  to  the 
crown,  and  who  gave  him  letters  to  Dr.  White  (now  mov- 
ing in  the  matter  of  the  organization  of  the  church  in  the 
United  States),  which,  if  not  needed,  greatly  tended  to 
smooth  the  way,  on  his  return,  for  cordial  and  courteous 
intercourse  with  that  calm  and  statesmanlike  divine.  He 
met  with  the  Rev.  Charles  Wesley  (who  deplored  the  pre- 
cipitancy of  his  brother  John  in  setting  apart  Coke  and 
Asbury  as  superintendents  "  of  the  Methodists  in  Amer- 
ica "),  and  he  impressed  him  greatly.  "  You  knew,"  wrote 
the  younger  Wesley  to  Dr.  Chandler,  "  I  had  the  happi- 
ness to  converse  with  that  truly  apostolical  man,  who  is 
esteemed  by  all  that  know  him  as  much  as  by  you  and 
me.  He  told  me  he  looked  upon  the  Methodists  as  sound 
members  of  the  church,  and  was  ready  to  ordain  any  of 
the  preachers  whom  he  should  find  duly  qualified."  ^ 

bishop  in  America  there  will  be  no  ground  on  which  to  make  such  a  request, 
and  that  the  Philadelpliia  plan  was  only  proposed  on  the  supposition  of  a  real 
and  absolute  necessity,  which  necessity  cannot  exist  where  there  is  a  bishop 
resident  in  America,  every  apprehension  of  this  kind  must  vanish.  My  own 
inclination  is  to  cultivate  as  close  a  connection  with  the  Church  of  England 
as  that  church  and  the  political  state  of  the  two  countries  shall  permit.  My 
hope  is  to  promote  the  interests  of  that  church  with  greater  effect  than  ever." 
(Letter  of  Bishop  Seabury  of  December  3,  1784.  .See  Beardsley,  "  Life  of 
Samuel  Seabury,"  p.  160.) 

1  He  adds  in  the  same  letter  a  sorrowful  lament  over  his  brother's  act,  and 
a  prophecy,  which  has  certainly  not  been  fulfilled.     "  Had  they  had  patience 


326  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xil. 

Having  thus  redeemed  his  time,  Bishop  Seabury  sailed 
for  home  March  15th,  and  arrived  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  June 
30,  1785,  having  stopped  at  HaHfax  on  the  way.  He  re- 
turned poorer  than  he  went,  having  spent  in  this  mission, 
which  had  lasted  over  two  years,  more  than  all  that  he 
had;  but  rich  in  the  consciousness  of  success,  and  endeared 
to  his  clergy  by  his  devotion  to  their  cause.  On  August 
3d  he  presided  at  the  first  convocation  of  the  diocese,  and 
laid  before  the  clergy  (there  was  no  lay  representation) 
the  concordat  and  the  pastoral  letter  of  the  Scotch  bishops, 
to  their  great  satisfaction.  On  their  part  the  clergy  ac- 
cepted him  as  "  supreme  in  the  government  of  the  church 
and  in  the  administration  of  all  ecclesiastical  affairs."  In 
the  letter  on  their  behalf  written  by  Mr.  Jarvis  to  Dr. 
White  at  the  time  of  the  selection  of  Dr.  Seabury  as 
bishop,  they  had  strongly  repudiated  the  plan  suggested 
by  his  paper,  "  The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  the 
United  States  Considered,"  denying  its  necessity  and  re- 
jecting its  principles.  Now,  after  two  years  of  struggle, 
they  felt  themselves  vindicated  by  facts.  Their  bishop, 
albeit  not  directly  of  the  English  succession,  was  among 
them,  and  at  this  primary  convention  exercised  his  episco- 
pal authority  in  ordaining  four  candidates  to  the  diaconate. 
This  was  the  first  episcopal  ordination  in  the  country. 
Little  else  was  done  at  the  convocation,  but  it  was  itself  the 
evidence,  in  its  existence  and  acts,  that  the  church  in  the 
integrity  of  its  ecclesiastical  order  was  present  in  the  land. 

a  little  longer,"  he  wrote,  "  they  would  have  seen  a  real  primitive  bishop  in 
America  duly  consecrated  by  three  Scotch  bishops.  His  ordination  would  be 
genuine,  valid,  episcopal.  But  what  are  your  poor  Methodists  now?  Only 
a  new  sect  of  Presbyterians.  They  will  lose  all  their  usefulness  and  impor- 
tance   .    .    .    and,  like  other  sects,  come  to  nothing.'''' 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

FORMATION    AND    ADOPTION    OF   THE    CONSTITUTION 
AND   THE    PRAYER-BOOK  (  I  784-89). 

The  movement  to  constitute  one  Episcopal  Church  for 
the  whole  United  States  was  begun  at  an  informal  meeting 
of  several  clergymen  from  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 
Pennsylvania,  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  May  11,  1784. 
They  met  by  appointment  to  consult  concerning  the  inter- 
ests of  the  "  Corporation  for  the  Relief  of  the  Widows  and 
Orphans  of  the  Clergy,"  a  corporation  which  had  been 
founded  in  1 769,  largely  by  the  efforts  of  Dr.  William 
Smith,  for  the  benefit  of  the  three  provinces  now  repre- 
sented at  the  meeting.!  j^-g  charter  and  its  funds  needed 
attention  under  the  changed  conditions  of  the  country. 
Before  this  meeting  was  arranged,  the  Rev.  Abraham 
Beach,  of  New  Brunswick,  who  suggested  it,  had  written, 
in  January,  1784,  a  letter  to  Dr.  William  White,  of  Phila- 
delphia, expressing  the  hope  "  that  the  members  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  this  country  would  interest  them- 
selves in  its  behalf,  would  endeavor  to  introduce  order  and 
uniformity  into  it,  and  provide  for  a  succession  in  the 
ministry." 

This  was  thoroughly  in  accord  with  the  plans  and  pur- 

1  This  corporation,  by  mutual  consent,  and  with  a  fair  division  of  tlie 
funds,  was  afterward  resolved  into  three,  under  the  charters  of  the  tliree 
States  respectively. 

327 


328  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

poses  of  Dr.  White.  As  early  as  November  13,  1783,  he 
had  proposed,  at  a  meeting  of  the  vestry  of  his  own 
church,  the  appointment  of  committees  from  the  vestries 
of  the  churches  in  Philadelphia  to  confer  with  the  clergy 
concerning  the  formation  of  a  representative  body  of  the 
Episcopal  churches  in  Pennsylvania.  The  committees 
were  appointed,  and,  after  consultation  with  the  clergy,  at 
the  house  of  Rev.  Dr.  White,  March  29,  i  784,  "  were  of 
the  opinion  that  a  subject  of  such  importance  ought  to  be 
taken  up,  if  possible,  with  the  general  concurrence  of  the 
Episcopalians  in  the  United  States."  When,  therefore, 
the  clergy  came  together  at  New  Brunswick,  in  May,  their 
minds  were  charged  with  a  larger  interest  than  the  resus- 
citation of  the  corporation  in  behalf  of  which  they  were 
assembled. 

There  were  present  at  this  meeting  three  representative 
clergy  from  each  of  the  three  States ;  namely,  from  New 
York,  Messrs.  Bloomer,  Benjamin  Moore,  and  Thomas 
Moore;  from  New  Jersey,  Rev.  Messrs.  Beach,  Eraser,  and 
Ogden ;  from  Pennsylvania,  Rev.  Drs.  White  and  Magraw, 
with  Rev.  Mr.  Blackwell.  Several  laymen  who  were  in 
the  town  on  civic  business  were  requested  to  attend  the 
meeting.  They  were  Messrs.  John  and  Richard  Stevens, 
Mr.  Richard  Dennis,  and  Colonel  Hoyt.  Dr.  William 
White  presided.  The  corporation  was  not  neglected,  but 
the  principal  discussion  of  the  first  day  was  on  the  princi- 
ples of  ecclesiastical  union.  The  Philadelphia  clergy  urged 
the  adoption  of  the  principles  which  they  had  previously 
agreed  upon ;  but  an  unexpected  obstacle  arose,  prevent- 
ing definite  action  at  this  time.  It  transpired,  through 
Mr.  Benjamin  Moore,  of  New  York,  that  the  New  York 
clergy  had  a  year  previously  joined, with  the  clergy  of 
Connecticut  in  an  application  abroad  for  the  consecra- 
tion of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Seabury  as  Bishop  of  Con- 


MEETING  IN  PHILADEIPHIA.  329 

necticut,  and  that,  pending  the  appHcation,  they  could 
not  join  in  any  proceeding"  which  might  seem  to  interfere 
with  it. 

A  committee  of  correspondence  was,  however,  appointed 
"  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  continental  representation 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  for  the  better  management 
of  the  concerns  of  said  church  "  ;  and  also  a  committee, 
consisting  of  Messrs.  Beach,  Bloomer,  and  Moore,  to  at- 
tend the  Trinity  Convocation  of  the  Connecticut  clergy 
"  for  the  purpose  of  soliciting  their  concurrence  ...  in 
such  measures  as  may  be  deemed  conducive  to  the  union 
and  prosperity  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  the  States  of 
America."  It  was  also  agreed  to  procure  as  general  a 
meeting  as  might  be  of  representatives  of  the  clergy  and 
laity  of  the  different  States  in  the  city  of  New  York  on  the 
6th  of  October  following. 

Before  that  general  meeting  a  provincial  one  was  held 
in  Philadelphia  which  had  great  influence  upon  it.  Within 
a  fortnight  after  the  meeting  in  New  Brunswick  a  conven- 
tion of  the  clergy  and  laity  from  the  different  parts  of 
Pennsylvania  was  held  in  Christ  Church  (May  24,  i  784), 
in  accordance  with  the  previous  recommendation  of  the 
clergy  and  vestries  of  the  churches  of  Philadelphia  at  their 
meeting  (March  29th  and  30th),  for  the  purpose  of  form- 
ing a  representative  body  of  the  Episcopal  churches  of  the 
State.  The  clergy,  of  whom  there  were  four,  came  in 
their  right  as  rectors ;  the  laymen,  of  whom  there  were 
.twenty-one,  had  their  appointment  by  delegation  from  the 
churchwardens  and  vestrymen  of  each  separate  Episcopal 
congregation.  It  was  the  first  time  that  the  laity  sat  in 
the  councils  of  the  church.  Dr.  White  presided,  and  each 
church  had  one  vote.  A  resolution  reported  by  a  special 
committee  was  adopted,  to  this  effect : 

"  That  it  is  expedient  to  appoint  a  standing  committee 


330  PkOTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURClL     [Chap.  xiii. 

of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  this  State,  consisting  of  clergy 
and  laity ;  that  the  said  committee  be  empowered  to 
correspond  and  confer  with  representatives  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  other  States  or  any  of  them,  and 
assist  in  framing  an  ecclesiastical  government ;  that  a 
constitution  of  ecclesiastical  government,  when  framed,  be 
reported  to  the  several  congregations,  to  be  binding  on 
all  the  congregations  consenting  to  it,  as  soon  as  a  majority 
of  the  congregations  shall  have  consented  ;  and  that  the 
committee  be  bound  by  the  following  instructions  or 
fundamental  principles : 

"  First,  That  the  Episcopal  Church  in  these  States  is, 
and  ought  to  be,  independent  of  all  foreign  authority, 
ecclesiastical  or  civil. 

"  Second,  That  it  ought  to  have,  in  common  with  all 
other  religious  societies,  full  and  exclusive  powers  to  reg- 
ulate the  concerns  of  its  own  communion. 

"  Third,  That  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  be  maintained 
as  now  professed  by  the  Church  of  England ;  and  uni- 
formity of  worship  continued,  as  near  as  may  be,  to  the 
liturgy  of  said  church. 

"  Fourth,  That  the  succession  of  the  ministry  be  agree- 
able to  the  usage  which  requireth  the  three  orders  of 
bishops,  priests,  and  deacons ;  that  the  rights  and  powers 
of  the  same,  respectively,  be  ascertained  ;  and  that  they  be 
exercised  according  to  reasonable  laws,  to  be  duly  made. 

"  Fifth,  That  to  make  canons  or  laws  there  be  no  other 
authority  than  that  of  a  representative  body  of  the  clergy 
and  laity  conjointly. 

"  Sixth,  That  no  powers  be  delegated  to  a  general 
ecclesiastical  government,  except  such  as  cannot  conven- 
iently be  exercised  by  the  clergy  and  laity  in  their 
respective  congregations."  ^ 

^  See  "  Half-century  of  Legislation,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  38. 


MEEThXG  IN  NEW    YORK.  331 

A  standing  committee  was  appointed,  of  which  Dr. 
William  White  was  chairman.  He  was  not  a  negligent 
one.  Before  the  autumn  meeting  in  New  York  he  had 
corresponded  widely  with  churchmen  in  various  parts  of 
the  country.  Park'er  in  Boston,  and  Bass  at  Newburyport 
(both  afterward  bishops  of  Massachusetts),  Provoost  at 
New  York  (subsequently  its  first  bishop),  Wharton  at 
Wilmington,  Del.  (one  of  the  co-laborers  in  liturgical 
changes).  West  of  Baltimore,  and  Smith  of  Chestertown, 
Md.,  Grififith  of  Fairfax,  Va.  (first  bishop  elect  of  the 
State),  and  Purcell  of  South  Carolina,  with  others,  received 
these  letters,  which  entered  at  length  and  in  detail  into  the 
plans  of  reconstruction,  and  which,  coming  from  such  a 
source,  stirred  the  interest  and  stimulated  the  action  which 
brought  so  large  a  delegation  to  New  York  at  the  time 
appointed. 

It  was  on  the  6th  of  October  that  the  convention  agreed 
upon  at  New  Brunswick  in  May  assembled  in  New  York. 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith  was  made  chairman.^  There  were 
representatives  of  eight  States  present ;  but  the  present 
meeting,  like  that  of  May,  at  which  it  was  arranged,  was 
regarded  as  a  voluntary  rather  than  an  authorized  conven- 
tion, because,  apart  from  the  delegates  from  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  and  Pennsylvania,  the  members  represented 
no  authority  from  the  united  churches  in  the  several  States, 
but  only  held  appointments  from  special  congregations. 
Even  the  regularly  appointed  delegates  had  received 
authority  only  to  propose  and  deliberate.  The  acts  of  the 
body,  therefore,  took  the  form  of  recommendation  and 
proposal.-     One  of  the  regularly  appointed  delegates,  the 

1  See  White,  "  Memoirs  of  tlic  Cluircli,"  p.  S6 ;  "  Ilalf-century  of  Legis- 
lation," vol.  iii.,  pp.  3,  4;  Perry,  "History  of  the  American  Episcopal 
Church,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  36  el  snj.;  Wilson,  "  Memoir  of  Bishop  White,"  p.  loi 
et  seq. 

2  "At  a  Convention  of  Clergymen  and   Lay  Deputies   of  the   Protestant 


7,^2  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

Rev.  John  R.  Marshall/  from  Connecticut,  read  a  paper 
which  declared  he  had  only  been  empowered  to  announce 
that  the  clergy  of  Connecticut  had  taken  measures  for 
obtaining  the  episcopate,  and  that,  until  they  had  suc- 
ceeded, they  could  do  nothing;  but  that  as  soon  as  they 
should  have  succeeded  they  would  come  forward  with 
their  bishop,  ready  to  do  what  the  general  interests  of  the 
church  might  require. 

The    Rev.    Samuel   Parker,    rector   of   Trinity    Church, 

Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  held  in  New  York, 
October  6  and  7,  1 784. 

PRESENT  AS  FOLLOWS  : 

Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island. 
Rev.  Samuel  Parker,  A.M. 

Connectiait. 
Rev.  John  R.  Marshall,  A.M. 
Ne7i<  York. 
Rev.  Samuel  Provoost,  A.M.,  Rev.  Thomas  Moore, 

Rev.  Abraham  Beach,  A.M.,  Hon.  James  Duane, 

Rev.  Ben.  Moore,  A.M.,  Maruis  Wuxet,  \  j. 

Rev.  Joshua  Bloomer,  A.M.,  John  Alsop,         \ 

Rev.  Leonard  Cutting,  A.M., 

AWi''  Jersey. 
Rev.  Uzal  Ogden,  John  Chetwood,  Esq., 

John  de  Hart,  Esq.,  Mr.  Samuel  Spragg. 

Pennsylvania. 
Rev.  Wm.  White,  U.D.,  Rich.  Willing,    i 

Rev.  Samuel  Magraw,  D.D.,  Samuel  Powell,  >  Esqs. 

Rev.  Joseph  Hutchins,  A.M.,  R.  Peters,  ) 

Mathew  Clarkson,  Esq., 

Delaware  State. 
Rev.  Sydenham  Thorn;  Rev.  Chas.  Wharton;  Mr.  Robt.  Clay. 
Maryland. 
Rev.  William  Smith,  D.D. 
"  N.  B. — Rev.  Mr.  Griffith,  from  the  State  of  Virginia,  was  present  by 
permission.     The  clergy  in  that  State  being  restricted  by  laws,  yet  in  force 
there,  were  not  at  liberty  to  send  Delegates,  or  to  consent  to  any  alterations 
in  the  Order,  Government,  Doctrine,  or  Worship  of  the  Church." 
(The  above  note  is  a  copy  from  the  minutes  of  the  assembly.) 
1   It  was  at  his  house  in  Woodbury,  Conn.,  that  the  Assembly  of  Connect- 
icut Clergymen  (missionaries  of  the  S.  P.   G.)  had  nominated  Dr.  Seabury 
as  bishop  (1783). 


LETTERS    TO    THE   AEW   YORK  CONVENTION.      333 

Boston,  who  represented  both  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island,  also  bore  a  missive  from  his  constituents.  They 
returned  the  Pennsylvania  resolutions,  which  had  been 
sent  them,  indorsed,  with  two  suggestions :  one,  that 
the  first  resolution,  concerning  the  independence  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  in  this  country  from  foreign  eccle- 
siastical and  civil  control,  was  not  to  be  construed  so  as  to 
exclude  an  application  for  the  episcopate  to  some  regular 
episcopal  power  abroad ;  and  the  other,  that  in  the  repre- 
sentative body  of  clergy  and  laity  the  laity  ought  not  to 
exceed  the  clergy,  either  in  their  number  or  their  votes. 
Accompanying  the  resolutions  thus  approved  were  a  series 
of  votes  by  the  clergy  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island, 
the  chief  of  which  was  one  urging  "  that  a  circular  letter 
be  written  to  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  Connecticut,  New 
York,  and  Pennsylvania,  urging  the  necessity  of  their 
uniting  with  us  in  adopting  some  speedy  measures  to  pro- 
cure an  American  episcopate ;  as  it  is  the*  unanimous 
opinion  of  this  convention  that  this  is  the  primary  object 
they  ought  to  have  in  view,  because  the  very  existence  of 
the  church  requires  some  speedy  mode  of  obtaining  regu- 
lar ordination."  In  the  letter  transmitting  the  resolutions 
and  the  votes  it  was  said:  "It  is  our  unanimous  opinion 
that  it  is  beginning  at  the  wrong  end  to  attempt  to  organ- 
ize our  church  before  we  have  obtained  a  head  ;"  and  *'  as 
to  the  mode  of  obtaining  what  we  stand  in  such  need  of,  we 
wish  above  all  things  to  procure  it  in  the  most  regular  man- 
ner" and  particularly  from  our  mother-church  in  England." 
These  documents  from  the  East  serve  to  show  the  very 
different  standpoints  from  which  the  various  parts  of  the 
church  approached  the  problem,  and  make  it  all  the  more 
remarkable  that  they  should  have  united  so  cordially  in 
the  "  Fundamental  Principles  of  an  Ecclesiastical  Consti- 
tution," which  was  the  great  achievement  of  the  conven- 


334  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

tion.  A  committee,^  composed  of  clerical  delegates  from 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Maryland,  and  Massachusetts, 
and  of  lay  delegates  from  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  and  Delaware,  was  on  the  first  day  appointed  to 
formulate  some  general  and  fundamental  principles  of 
organization,  to  be  proposed  for  adoption  by  the  churches 
of  the  several  States ;  and  it  was  also  desired  to  frame 
a  proper  substitute  for  the  State  Prayers  in  the  liturgy  for 
temporary  use.  It  does  not  appear  that  this  lesser  duty- 
was  performed,  but  the  greater  was  accomplished  with 
substantial  unanimity.  The  report,  made  on  the  second 
day,  embodied  essentially  the  principles  affirmed  by  the 
Philadelphia  clergy  in  May,  and  was  adopted.-     It  advo- 

1  The  members  of  this  committee  were  Rev.  Drs.  William  Smitli  and 
William  White,  Rev.  Messrs.  Samuel  Parker  and  Samuel  Provoost,  together 
with  Messrs.  Clarkson,  De  Hart,  Claj',  and  Duane. 

2  The  report  was  as  follows : 

"  The  Body  now  assembled  recommend  to  the  clergy  and  congregations  of 
their  Communions  in  the  States  represented  as  above,  and  propose  to  those  of 
the  other  States  not  represented,  That  as  soon  as  they  shall  have  organized 
or  associated  themselves  in  the  States  to  which  they  respectively  belong, 
agreeably  to  such  rules  as  they  think  proper,  they  unite  in  a  general  ecclesias- 
tical Constitution  on  the  following  fundamental  Principles  : 

"  I.  There  shall  be  a  General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America. 

"  II.  That  the  Episcopal  Church  in  each  State  send  deputies  to  the  Con- 
vention, consisting  of  clergy  and  laity. 

"  III.  That  associated  congregations  in  two  or  more  States  may  send 
deputies  jointly. 

"  IV.  That  the  said  Church  shall  maintain  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  as 
now  held  by  the  Church  of  England,  and  shall  adhere  to  the  Liturgy  of  said 
Church,  as  far  as  shall  be  consistent  with  the  American  Revolution  and  the 
Constitution  of  the  respective  States. 

"  V.  That  in  every  State  where  there  shall  be  a  bishop  duly  consecrated 
and  settled,  he  shall  be  considered  as  a  member  of  the  Convention  ex  officio. 

"VI.  That  the  clergy  and  laity  assembled  in  Convention  shall  deliberate 
in  one  body,  but  shall  vote  separately ;  and  the  concurrence  of  both  shall  be 
necessary  to  give  validity  to  any  measure. 

"  VII.  That  the  first  meeting  of  the  Convention  shall  be  at  Philadelphia, 
the  Tuesday  before  the  Feast  of  St.  Michael  next;  to  which  it  is  hoped  and 
earnestly  desired  that  the  Episcopal  churches  in  the  respective  States  will 
send  their  clerical  and  lay  deputies  duly  instructed  and  authorized  to  proceed 
on  the  necessary  business  herein  proposed  for  their  Deliberation. 
"  Signed  by  Order  of  the  Convention, 

"  Wii.t.iAM  Smith,  D.D.,  President.''' 


FUNDAMENTAL    CONSTITU'JIONAL   PRINCIPLES.     335 

cated  one  general  Episcopal  Church  for  the  United  States, 
to  be  constitutionally  governed  by  representatives,  clerical 
and  lay,  from  the  church  in  each  State;  that  this  church 
embody  the  doctrine  and  adopt  the  liturgy  of  the  English 
Church,  so  far  as  consistent  with  the  changed  political 
situation  ;  that  bishops  be  recognized  as  ex  officio  members 
of  the  General  Convention;  and  that  the  concurrence  of 
clergy  and  laity  be  essential  for  the  validity  of  all  meas- 
ures. The  first  meeting  of  this  General  Convention  was 
appointed  for  the  Tuesday  before  the  feast  of  St.  Michael 
(i.e.,  September  27th),  1785,  at  Philadelphia. 

This  action,  thought  advisory  and  voluntary,  was  a 
timely  one.  It  came  in  between  two  significant  acts  which 
bore  strongly  on  the  future  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  On 
the  2d  of  September  of  this  same  year  John  Wesley  had 
privately,  in  his  bedroom  at  Bristol,  solemnly  set  apart 
Dr.  Coke  as  superintendent  of  the  Methodists  in  America, 
with  authorization  to  appoint  Rev.  Francis  Asbury  to  a 
like  position,  and  to  ordain  elders  for  the  administration  of 
the  sacraments.  Hitherto  the  IMethodists,  who  now  num- 
bered fifteen  thousand  members  and  eighty-three  preach- 
ers, besides  several  hundred  local  preachers,^  had  held 
themselves  to  be  a  society  in  the  English  Church,  receiv- 
ing the  sacraments  from  its  clergy.  Henceforth  they  were 
to  formi  a  separate  communion,  and  remove  from  even 
a  quasi-ccnnection  with  the  Episcopal  Church.-  It  is 
doubtful  if  Mr.  Wesley  meant  more  than  to  impart  to  Dr. 
Coke  and  Mr.  Asbury,  in  a  solemn  manner  which  should 
compel  respect  and  obedience,  a  .special  superintendence 
of  the  American  Methodists,  like  that  which  he  bore  to 
the  Methodist  societies  in  England  and  Ireland.  He  cer- 
tainly gave  them  the  power  of  ordaining  elders  who  should 
administer  the  sacraments  ;  but  this  he  did  on  the  principle 

1  Stevens,  "  History  of  Metbodism,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  209  et  seq. 

2  Tyerman,  "  Life  and  Times  of  Jolin  Wesley,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  434. 


336  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

(which  in  a  limited  way  he  practiced  in  regard  to  Scotland, 
and  which  he  had  adopted  from  Lord  King)  that  a  pres- 
byter .  might  ordain  presbyters.  As  America  was  now 
severed  civilly  and  ecclesiastically  from  England,  he  as- 
sumed that  he  might  rightfully  do  this  for  those  outside 
the  control  of  the  English  Church.  When,  however,  these 
superintendents,  a  few  years  later,  called  themselves  bish- 
ops, Wesley  was  loud  in  his  protest  against  it.^  But  it 
was  too  late.  The  force  and  fervor  of  the  whole  body  were 
then  in  full  swing.  Their  administration  had  the  efficiency 
of  the  episcopal  regimen ;  and  their  religious  enthusiasm 
carried  them  further  and  further  from  any  sympathy  with 
the  order  and  moderation  of  the  church  from  which  they 
came  out.  No  one  in  America,  at  the  time  of  the  October 
Convention,  knew  of  this  circumstance  ;  but  the  action  had 
been  taken  which,  but  for  this  anticipative  legislation, 
might  have  detached  even  larger  numbers  of  Southern 
Episcopalians  from  the  fold.  As  it  was,  South  Carolina  a 
little  later  came  into  connection  with  the  General  Conven- 
tion only  on  the  express  stipulation  that  there  should  be 
no  bishop  in  their  State. 

The  action  was,  moreover,  timely  in  relation  to  Dr. 
Seabury's  consecration,  a  month  later,  by  the  Scotch  non- 
juring  bishops.  At  the  time  of  the  Convention  it  was 
known  that  he  had  not  succeeded  with  the  English  bishops. 
It  was  not  known  that  he  would  succeed  with  the  Scotch. 

1  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Asbury,  dated  September  20,  1788,  he  says:  "You 
are  the  elder  brother  of  the  American  Methodists,  as  I  am,  under  God,  the 
father  of  the  whole  family.  But  in  one  point,  my  dear  brother,  I  am  a  little 
afraid  you  and  the  doctor  differ  from  me.  I  study  to  be  little ;  you  study  to 
be  great.  One  instance  of  this  your  greatness  has  given  me  great  concern. 
How  can  you,  how  dare  you,  suffer  yourself  to  be  called  Bishop?  I  shudder, 
I  start,  at  the  very  thought.  Men  may  call  me  a  knave  or  a  fool,  ...  I 
am  content ;  but  they  shall  never,  by  my  consent,  call  me  Bishop.  For  my 
sake,  for  God's  sake,  for  Christ's  sake,  put  a  full  end  to  this.  .  .  .  Let 
Methodists  know  their  calling  better."  (Tyerman,  "  Life  and  Times  of  John 
Wesley,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  438.) 


PENNSYLVANIA    CONVENTION  CALLED.  i^\^'] 

When  he  returned  the  next  summer  to  Connecticut  it  was 
to  no  organized  diocese,  but  to  a  few  clergy  and  churches, 
whom  he  was  bound,  so  far  as  possible,  to  rule  in  the  spirit 
and  by  the  forms  of  the  proscribed  Scottish  prelates  who 
had  ordained  him.  Had  there  been  no  other  element  than 
this  in  the  national  construction  of  the  church,  it  would 
have  stood  to  the  apprehension  of  the  community  as  an 
imported  sect,  discredited,  if  not  disowned,  by  the  mother 
of  the  colonial  churches.  Whatever  service  the  action  in 
Connecticut  might  contribute  to  the  final  result  was  largely 
dependent  on  its  reception  by  a  body  with  clearly  defined 
principles  of  legislation,  in  harmony  with  the  national  spirit 
of  representation,  and  determined  to  maintain  the  prestige 
and  traditions  of  Christianity  as  embodied  in  the  Church 
of  England. 

These  two  events  (the  breaking  off  of  the  Methodists 
and  the  establishment  of  a  church  hierarchy  in  Connecti- 
cut), great  as  were  their  effects  on  the  future  national 
church,  w^ere  as  yet  unknown  and  could  concern  only 
those  interested  in  the  constitutional  movement.  When 
the  advisory  Convention  of  1784  adjourned,  to  prepare 
for  the  authoritative  and  duly  commissioned  Convention 
in  Philadelphia  in  1785,  the  members  left  with  a  sense  both 
of  responsibility  and  anxiety.  The  Southerners  were  ap- 
prehensive that  too  much  would  be  assumed.  The  North- 
erners were  solicitous  lest  too  much  should  be  conceded. 
Dr.  White,  as  prime  mover  and  counselor,  was  serene  and 
hopeful.  At  a  meeting  held  at  his  house  (February  7, 
1785)  by  the  members  of  the  New  York  Convention  of 
the  preceding  October,  a  Convention  of  all  the  clergy  and 
lay  delegates  of  Pennsylvania  was  called  to  meet  in  Christ 
Church  on  the  23d  of  May,  "  in  order  to  organize  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  this  State  agreeably  to  the  intentions 
of  the  body  assembled  in  New  York."    At  this  Convention 


338       ■  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

duly  assembled,  "  An  Act  of  Association  of  the  Clergy  and 
Congregations  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania "  was  ratified,  wherein  the  name 
"  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania "  was  adopted;  an  annual  Convention  with 
authority  was  established,  pledged  in  its  action  to  "  be 
consistent  with  the  fundamental  principles  agreed  on  at 
the  two  previous  meetings  in  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  "  ;  and  deputies  were  chosen  to  the  Convention  to  be 
held  in  Philadelphia  in  September,  1785. 

On  the  1 8th  of  May,  1785,  a  convention  (having  at  last 
been  authorized  by  the  act  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  State),  consisting  of  thirty-six  clergymen  and  more 
than  seventy  laymen  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia, 
met  in  Richmond,  and  passed  resolutions  appointing  dep- 
uties to  the  Philadelphia  Convention  to  be  held  in  Sep- 
tember, 1785.  It  agreed  to  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  proposed  constitution,  but  declined  to  be  bound 
by  Section  IV.,  concerning  the  doctrine  and  liturgy,  and 
Section  VI.,  concerning  the  mode  of  deliberation  and  vot- 
ing.^ It  then  proceeded  to  the  enactment  of  "  Rules  for 
the  Order,  Government,  and  Discipline  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia,"  by  which  it  was  designed 
to  displace  some  of  the  English  canons.  A  standing 
committee  was  also  chosen,  and  "  instructed  to  consider  of 

1  In  the  instructions  to  the  deputies,  given  with  these  resolutions,  occur 
tlie  following  sentences:  "  Uniformity  in  doctrine  and  worship  will  unques- 
tionably contribute  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
But  we  earnestly  wish  that  this  may  be  pursued  with  liberality  and  modera- 
tion. .  .  .  From  the  Holy  Scriptures  themselves  rather  than  the  covenants 
of  men  must  we  learn  the  terms  of  salvation.  Creeds,  therefore,  ought  to  be 
simple ;  and  we  are  not  anxious  to  retain  any  other  than  that  which  is  com- 
monly called  the  Apostles'  Creed.  Should  a  change  in  the  liturgy  be  pro- 
posed, let  it  be  made  with  caution,  let  the  alterations  be  few ;  .  .  .  we 
will  not  now  decide  what  ceremonies  ought  to  be  retained.  We  wish  that 
those  which  exist  may  be  estimated  according  to  their  utility ;  and  that  such 
as  may  appear  fit  to  be  laid  aside  may  no  longer  be  apjjendages  of  our 
church." 


CONVENTION  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  339 

the  proper  means  of  obtaining  consecration  for  a  bishop  to 
officiate  in  this  church."  In  Maryland,  where,  as  in  Penn- 
sylvania, a  Convention  had  been  lield  before  the  October 
meeting  in  New  York,  another  Convention  was  held  subse- 
quent to  it,  in  the  latter  part  of  October,  in  which,  the 
church  in  the  State  having  been  pre\'iously  organized,  the 
relations  of  the  State  Convention  to  the  General  Conven- 
tion were  defined. 

After  two  attempts,  a  Convention  of  the  clergy  and  laity 
of  South  Carolina  was  held  in  Charleston  July  12,  1785, 
to  take  into  consideration  the  matters  recommended  by 
the  meeting  at  New  York.  It  was  .sparsely  attended,  only 
three  clergymen  and  scarcely  half  a  score  of  laymen  being 
present.  Little  was  done,  either  in  the  way  of  organizing 
the  church  in  South  Carolina  or  suggesting  action  for  the 
deputies  of  the  church  at  large;  but  five  deputies  were 
chosen,  only  one  of  whom  was  a  clergyman.  This  clergy- 
man was  the  Rev.  Robert  Smith,  who  declined  the  ap- 
pointment, and  was  replaced  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Purcell. 
Smith's  reasons  for  declining  were  of  the  noblest.  Epis- 
copacy was  in  this  State  distrusted  as  identified  with  an 
undue  attachment  to  the  British  government.  The  anti- 
British  sentiment,  on  account  of  the  fearful  ravages  of  the 
war,  was  intense ;  and  there  was  danger  that  patriotic 
aversion  to  the  church  might  be  increased  by  its  eccle- 
siastical consolidation.  There  was  a  strong  probability 
that  the  Convention  would  decline  the  invitation  given 
by  the  Convention  in  New  York.  Dr.  Robert  Smith,  being 
the  most  probable  candidate  for  bishop,  should  one  be 
chosen,  averted  the  danger  by  moving  compliance  with 
the  invitation  to  join  the  Convention,  on  the  understanding 
that  no  bishop  should  be  settled  in  the  State.  He  sacri- 
ficed his  own  prospects,  and  was  content  to  appear  an 
opponent  of  the  episcopate  to  which  he  was  soon  to  be 


340  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

elevated,  in  order  to  join  South  Carolina  to  the  General 
Convention.  After  so  doing  he  could  not  feel  that  he  was 
the  proper  representative  to  advocate  a  policy  which  car- 
ried out  his  motion,  but  did  not  express  his  sentiments. 

In  New  York  a  Convention  was  assembled  June  22, 
1785,  scarcely  larger  than  that  of  South  Carolina,  consist- 
ing of  five  clergymen  and  eleven  laymen,  who  elected 
three  clerical  and  three  lay  delegates  to  the  coming  Gen- 
eral Convention,  whom  they  commended  to  conform  to 
the  general  principles  already  established  to  regulate  their 
conduct  in  the  matter. 

In  New  Jersey  the  Convention  met  at  New  Brunswick, 
July  6,  1785,  consisting  of  three  clergymen  and  fourteen 
laymen,  and  proceeded  to  elect  a  delegation  of  four  clergy- 
men and  six  laymen  to  the  coming  General  Convention. 
These  were  empowered  to  accede,  on  the  part  of  the 
Convention,  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  October 
Convention  in  New  York,  and  to  adopt  measures  necessary 
for  the  general  church  not  repugnant  to  those  fundamental 
principles.  Arrangements  were  also  made  for  an  annual 
State  Convention. 

At  the  North  a  different  attitude  toward  the  coming 
Convention  was  occasioned  by  the  return  (June  30,  1785) 
of  Dr.  Seabury,  now  a  bishop.  He  had  met  his  clergy  in 
convocation  at  Middletown  on  the  2d  of  August,  had 
delivered  to  them  a  solemn  charge,  and  had  received  their 
address  of  allegiance.  They  all  felt  that  the  church  in 
Connecticut  was  fully  organized.  An  invitation  had  been 
addressed  to  Dr.  White,  and  through  him  to  the  Southern 
brethren,  to  be  present  at  this  convocation,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  considering  measures  tending  to  the  union  of  the 
church  in  the  thirteen  States.  It  did  not  seem  advisa- 
ble to  them,  in  view  of  the  coming  General  Convention, 


LETTERS   OF  PARKER  AND   SEABURV.  341 

to  accept  it ;  and  their  response  was  an  invitation  to 
Bishop  Seabury  and  his  clergy  to  attend  the  Convention 
to  meet  in  Philadelphia  in  September.  This,  in  turn,  it 
did  not  seem  expedient  or  proper  to  the  Connecticut 
clergy  to  do.  The  fifth  of  the  fundamental  articles  set 
forth  in  the  preliminary  Convention  at  New  York  did  not 
give  to  their  bishop  that  official  precedence  which  they 
held  to  be  his  due. 

Mr.  Parker,  of  Boston,  who  was  present  at  the  Middle- 
town  convocation,  had  urged  Bishop  Seabury  to  attend  at 
Philadelphia,  and  wrote  to  Dr.  White,  a  fortnight  before 
the  assembling  of  the  Convention,  that,  had  Section  V.  (as 
he  had  proposed)  provided  that  a  bishop,  if  present,  should 
be  president  of  the  Convention,  he  made  no  doubt  one 
would  have  been  there.  In  the  meantime  such  slight 
alterations  as  had  been  made  in  the  liturgy  at  Middletown 
were  in  the  main  adopted  by  a  Convention  of  clerical  and 
lay  delegates  from  the  churches  in  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  and  New  Hampshire.  A  copy  of  these  proceed- 
ings, sent  by  Mr.  Parker  to  Dr.  White  for  the  president  of 
the  coming  Convention,  was  all  the  response  made  to  the 
invitation  to  attend.  Bishop  Seabury  himself  wrote  a 
long  letter  to  Dr.  William  Smith,  and  a  shorter  one  to  Dr. 
White,  setting  forth  his  sentiments,  and  criticising  the 
fundamental  principles  adopted  in  New  York.  He  for- 
warded these  documents  through  Dr.  Chandler,  who  had 
now  returned  from  abroad  to  New  Jersey ;  and  that  worthy 
divine  accompanied  the  communications  with  a  weighty 
one  of  his  own.  All  the  letters  were  fraternal  in  tone  and 
courteous  in  language ;  they  were  equally  explicit  and 
outspoken  in  their  opinions.  They  criticised  the  premature 
establishment  of  so  many  and  so  precise  fundamental  rules, 
the  too  great  curtailment  of  the  episcopal  office  and  dig- 


342  PROTESTAXT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

nity,  and  the  admission  of  lay  delegates  into  the  church 
councils,  at  least  in  the  degree  allowed.  With  such  divi- 
sion of  sentiment,  Bishop  Seabury  could  not  see  that  his 
duty  would  permit  his  attendance. 

Thus  it  happened  that  all  New  England  was  left  out  of 
the  first  General  Convention. 

Before  it  assembled,  moreover,  there  came  various 
unfavorable  comments  from  abroad.  Bishop  Skinner  (a 
consecrator  of  Bishop  Seabury)  and  the  Rev.  Jonathan 
Boucher  each  carried  on  a  correspondence  loudly  lament- 
ing the  "busy  bustling"  of  Dr.  Smith  and  the  "motley 
composition  "  of  the  proposed  Convention.  The  versatile 
and  voluble  Boucher  was  especially  eloquent  in  his  letters 
to  Dr.  White,  with  depreciatory  criticisms  of  the  constitu- 
tional plan  of  organization,  and  with  strong  advocacy  of 
Bishop  Seabury's  claims  and  principles.  Rev.  Alexander 
Murray,  formerly  missionary  at  Reading,  Pa.,  now  abroad, 
and  anxious  for  an  American  bishopric  himself,  was  copious 
in  his  communications,  which  were  filled  with  complaints 
and  suggestions  of  that  omniscient  character  which  are 
incident  to  persons  remote  from  the  scene  of  action.  In 
the  meantime  Granville  Sharpe  had  sent  to  his  corre- 
spondent, President  Manning,  of  Brown  University,  Rhode 
Island,  a  protest  against  both  the  regularity  and  validity 
of  Bishop  Seabury's  orders  from  the  nonjuring  prelates. 
Copies  of  this  protest  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  Rev. 
Samuel  Provoost,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  for 
the  purpose  of  laying  them  before  the  Philadelphia  Con- 
vention. Dr.  Rush,  a  prominent  Presbyterian  physician 
in  Philadelphia,  and  friend  of  Dr.  White,  had  occasion  to 
write  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  urged  the 
consecration  of  American  bishops,  as  the  time  was  fully 
ripe.  Dr.  Franklin,  also,  whose  fame  and  influence  abroad 
were   great,   interested   himself   on   the   same   behalf  in   a 


THE   FIRST  GENERAL    COXVENTIOX.  343 

correspondence  with  Mr.  Sharpe,  though  he  did  not  see  the 
necessity  for  the  act  which  others  so  strenuously  urged.^ 

It  was  in  an  atmosphere  so  charged  with  opposing 
tendencies  that  the  first  General  Convention  met.  It 
came  together  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  on  the  27th 
of  September,  1785.  It  was  composed  of  sixteen  clergy- 
men and  twenty-four  laymen,  representing  seven  of  the 
thirteen  States  then  existent,  namely.  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and 
South  Carolina.  The  large  preponderance  of  delegates 
was  from  the  two  States  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  they  to- 
gether having  ten  of  the  clergy  and  fourteen  of  the  laity 
on  their  lists.-  Rev.  Dr.  White  was  chosen  president,  and 
Rev.  Mr.  Griffith,  of  Virginia,  was  appointed  secretary. 

The  first  business  was  the  reading  of  the  "  Fundamental 
Principles"  of  1784,  and  their  formal  approval,  except 
Section  IV.,  to  which  the  Virginia  Convention,  by  far  the 

1  He  had  in  the  summer  of  1784  written  from  Passy,  near  Paris,  to  the 
young  Americans  who  were  in  vain  waiting  for  ordination  in  London:  "  An 
hundred  years  hence,  when  people  are  more  enlightened,  it  will  be  wondered 
at  that  men  in  America,  qualified  by  their  learning  and  piety  to  pray  for  and 
instruct  their  neighbors,  should  not  be  permitted  to  do  it  till  they  had  made 
a  voyage  six  thousand  miles  out  and  home,  to  ask  leave  of  a  cross  old  gentle- 
man at  Canterbury."  In  the  same  letter  he  had  shown  the  chaotic  state  of 
his  mind  in  matters  ecclesiastical  by  the  following  narration :  "  I  applied  to  a 
clergyman  of  my  acquaintance  for  information  on  the  subject  of  your  obtain- 
ing ordination  liere.  His  opinion  was,  it  could  not  be  done;  and  if  it 
were  done,  you  would  be  required  to  owe  obedience  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Paris.  I  next  inquired  of  the  pope's  nuncio  whether  you  might  not  be 
ordained  by  their  bishop  in  America,  powers  being  sent  him  for  that  purpose, 
if  he  has  them  not  already.  The  answer  was,  the  thing  is  impossible,  unless 
the  gentlemen  become  Catholics.  .  .  .  But  what  is  the  necessity  of  your 
being  connected  with  the  Church  of  England?  Would  it  not  be  as  well  if 
you  were  of  the  Church  of  Ireland?  .  .  .  If  both  Britain  and  Ireland  refuse 
you,  I  am  not  sure  that  the  bishops  of  Denmark  or  Sweden  would  ordain  you, 
unless  you  became  Lutherans.     What  is  to  be  done?  " 

2  Of  the  clergy,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Provoost  of  New  York,  Beach  of  New 
Jersey,  White  of  Pennsylvania,  Smith  of  Maryland,  Wharton  of  Delaware, 
Griffith  of  Virginia,  and  Purcell  of  South  Carolina  were  the  most  prominent. 
The  more  prominent  laymen  were  Messrs.  Duane  of  New  York,  Dennis  of 
New  Jersey,  Peters  of  Pennsylvania,  Sykes  of  Delaware,  Craddock  of  Mary- 
land, Page  of  Virginia,  and  Read  of  South  Carolina. 


344  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chai".  xiii. 

largest  of  any  which  had  sent  delegates,  had  objected. 
Instead  of  it,  a  resolution  was  adopted  as  follows : 

"  That  a  committee  be  appointed,  consisting  of  one 
clerical  and  one  lay  delegate  from  each  State,  to  consider 
of  and  report  such  alterations  in  the  liturgy  as  shall  render 
it  consistent  with  the  American  Revolution  and  the  consti- 
tutions of  the  respective  States ;  and  such  further  alterations 
in  the  liturgy  as  it  may  be  advisable  for  this  Convention 
to  recommend  to  the  consideration  of  the  church  here 
represented." 

The  Sixth  Fundamental  Principle,  to  which  Virginia 
had  also  demurred,  was  explained  as  meaning  that  the 
deputies  were  to  vote  by  States  and  not  individually. 

These  Fundamental  Principles,  as  adopted  by  this  Con- 
vention, became  the  only  bond  of  union  acted  under  by 
the  church  until  i  789.  The  general  constitution  framed 
at  the  present  Convention  was  recommendatory  only, 
requiring  ratification  by  the  church  in  the  different  States 
before  it  became  obligatory.^  This  was  also  true  of  the 
liturgical  alterations,  afterward  embodied  in  the  "  Proposed 
Book,"  as  well  as  of  the  Articles  as  altered  by  this  Con- 
vention. The  principle  embodied  much  later  in  the 
constitution  was  here  acted  upon,  namely,  that  the  provis- 
ions of  the  constitution  and  all  alterations  of  them  must 
be  proposed  in  one  General  Convention,  announced  to  the 
church  in  the  various  States,  and  then  be  ratified  by  the 
subsequent  General  Convention. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  Convention  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  report  a  "  Draft  of  an  Ecclesiastical  Consti- 
tution for  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America."  To  this  same  committee  was  subse- 
quently assigned  the  duty  of  preparing  the  necessary  and 
proposed  alterations  in  the  liturgy  ;  and  later  still  it  was 

1  White,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Church,"  pp.  107,  108. 


THE   ''PROPOSED   BOOK:'  345 

instructed  to  prepare  and  report  "A  Plan  for  Obtaining 
the  Consecration  of  Bishops,  together  with  an  Address 
to  the  Most  Rev.  the  Archbishops  and  the  Right  Rev. 
the  Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  for  that  Purpose." 
The  chief  labors  of  the  Convention  thus  fell  upon  the 
committee,  which  was  composed  of  those  persons  whom 
we  have  previously  indicated 'as  the  ruling  spirits  of  the 
assembly,  and  of  whom  Dr.  White  was  unmistakably  the 
leader.  By  October  ist,  which  fell  on  a  Saturday,  the 
committee  reported  on  the  first  two  subjects ;  and  the 
consideration  of  the  liturgical  alterations,  paragraph  by 
paragraph,  was  begun,  and  continued  at  Monday's  session. 
During  the  transcription  by  the  clerks  of  the  liturgical 
alterations  on  Tuesday,  October  4th,  the  "  Ecclesiastical 
Constitution"  was  agreed  upon,  and  the  address  to  the 
English  archbishops  and  bishops  was  received.  This  rapid 
action  indicates  careful  preparation  previous  to  the  Con- 
vention ;  but  in  the  case  of  liturgical  alterations  a  longer 
time  was  needed  to  put  them  into  shape  before  they  could 
be  wisely  acted  upon.  On  Wednesday,  October  5th,  when 
all  the  proposed  alterations  had  been  read  and  reviewed, 
a  committee,  consisting  of  Dr.  White,  Dr.  Smith,  and  Mr. 
Wharton,  was  appointed  to  "  publish  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  with  the  alterations  proposed,  as  well  as  those  now 
ratified  (in  order  to  render  the  liturgy  consistent  with  the 
American  Revolution  and  the  constitutions  of  the  respec- 
tive States), 1  as  the  alterations  and  new  offices  recom- 
mended to  this  church ;  and  that  the  book  be  accompanied 
with  a  proper  preface  or  address,  setting  forth  the  reasons 
and  expediency  of  the  alterations ;  and  that  the  committee 
have  liberty  to  make  verbal  and  grammatical  corrections, 
but  in  such  manner  as  that  nothing  in  form  or  substance 
be  altered."  This  resulted  later  in  the  publication  of  the 
1  The  parentheses  are  introduced  by  the  author  to  make  the  sense  clear. 


346  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHUKCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

"  Proposed  Book."  The  same  committee  were  "  authorized 
to  pubhsh  with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  such  of  the 
reading  and  singing  Psahns,  and  such  Kalends  of  proper 
lessons  for  the  different  Sundays  and  Holy  Days  through- 
out the  year,  as  they  may  think  proper."  On  the  day 
of  adjournment,  October  7th,  as  had  been  voted  by  the 
Convention,  the  liturgy  of  the  "  Proposed  Book  "  was  read 
by  Dr.  White,  and  a  sermon  explanatory  of  it  was  preached 
by  Dr.  Smith,  who  was  the  chief  promoter  of  the  changes 
proposed. 

These  changes  were  much  greater  than  had  been 
anticipated ;  but  still  they  were  not  so  great  as  those 
which  appeared  in  the  "  Proposed  Book."  Dr.  Smith,  in 
his  sermon,  had  said  of  the  committee  on  alterations  in  the 
liturgy,  of  which  he  was  the  ruling  member,'  "  We  stood 
arrested,  as  it  were,  at  an  awful  distance.  It  appeared 
almost  sacrilege  to  approach  the  porch,  or  lift  a  hand  to 
touch  a  single  part,  to  polish  a  single  corner,  or  to  clear  it 
from  its  rust  of  years."  But  this  proved  to  be  only  the  rhet- 
oric appropriate  to  the  occasion.  The  committee's  report 
included  (besides  the  changes  of  phraseology  in  some 
sentences  of  the  Te  Deum  and  a  few  of  the  collects,  and 
the  excision  of  certain  repetitions)  the  abolition  of  two 
creeds,  the  Nicene  and  the  Athanasian  ;  the  omission  of  one 
article  (on  the  descent  into  hell)  of  the  Apostles'  Creed ; 
the  reduction  of  the  Articles  from  thirty-nine  to  twenty, 
and  the  alteration  of  some  which  remained  ;  also  selections 
from  the  Psalms  in  place  of  the  Psalter,  and  changes,  in- 
volving doctrinal  comment,  in  the  Offices  of  Baptism,  the 
Burial  of  the  Dead,  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  and  the 
Catechism ;  together  with  other  literary  variations  indica- 
tive of  taste  good  or  bad.     Special  services  were  provided, 

1  Dr.  White  was  not  a  member  of  the  subcommittee  which  undertook  the 
liturgical  aUerations.      Dr.  Smith  was  chairman  of  it. 


THE    CONSTITUTION.  347 

also,  for  the  Fourth  of  July  and  Thanksgiving  day.  In 
embodying  these  changes  in  the  "  Proposed  Book,"  still 
further  modifications  were  introduced,  although  it  had 
been  provided  that  "nothing  in  form  or  substance  be 
altered."  As  the  book  was  never  adopted,  never  even 
achieved  a  passing  popularity,  and  would  not  even  sell,  it 
may  seem  needless  to  have  dwelt  upon  it  at  all.  It  forms, 
however,  too  significant  an  indication  of  the  temper  of  the 
times,  whose  dangers  the  wiser  counsels  of  more  sober 
men  averted,^  to  be  hghtly  passed  by. 

The  really  great  work  of  this  Convention  was  "  A  Gen- 
eral Ecclesiastical  Constitution  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America."  "  It  had  been 
anticipated  in  the  Fundamental  Principles  of  i  784,  and  it 
was  changed  in  several  features  in  1789;  but  it  is  the  root 
out  of  which  the  constitutional  system  of  the  church  has 
grown,  and  exhibits  the  foundation-principles  of  the  present 
ecclesiastical  organization.  It  is  preeminently  the  work 
"  of  Dr.  White,  who  was  engaged  upon  it  while  Dr.  Smith 
was  busied  with  the  liturgical  changes.  It  embodied  the 
principle  of  one  church  for  the  country,  to  act  through 
deputies  from  the  churches  in  the  several  States  in  the 

• 

1  See  White,  "Memoirs  of  the  Church,"  p.  115  et  scq.,  where  Dr. 
White  fully  criticises  and  explains  the  course,  which  he  deemed  unwise  and 
unjustifiable,  taken  in  this  matter,  which,  otherwise,  from  his  membership 
on  the  committee  of  publication,  he  might  have  been  deemed  to  approve.  As 
an  instance,  much  commented  on  in  regard  to  the  religious  looseness  of  the 
time,  notice  ought,  perhaps,  to  be  taken  of  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Page  in 
the  committee  to  substitute  one  short  petition  for  the  first  four  petitions  of 
the  liturgy.  No  one  but  himself  favored  it,  and  he  explained  that  his  objec- 
tion was  not  to  the  doctrine,  but  to  the  use  of  the  word  "  Trinity"  as  an 
appellation  of  God  in  prayer,  which,  not  being  a  Scriptural  term,  he  deemed 
undesirable.  Should,  however,  the  fourth  petition  be  omitted,  the  other  three 
might  be  construed  to  involve  tritheism,  and  therefore  one  inclusive  petition 
(what,  does  not  appear),  he  thought,  would  obviate  the  difficulty.  This,  the 
most  startling  proposition  made,  does  not,  therefore,  stand  so  much  for 
doctrinal  unsoundness  as  for  liturgical  rashness. 

2  See  Appendix  B. 


348  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

General  Convention,  which  was  to  meet  once  in  three 
years.  It  defined  the  number  of  deputies  and  their  mode 
of  voting.  It  was  chiefly  remarkable  for  its  insistence  on 
lay  as  well  as  clerical  representation,  and  the  ex  officio 
membership  of  bishops,  to  whom,  however,  it  failed  to 
give  official  precedence.  It  provided  that  clergymen  of 
every  order  should  be  amenable  to  the  authority  of  the 
Convention  of  their  own  State,  in  regard  to  suspension  or 
removal ;  an  article  strenuously  opposed  by  the  English 
bishops,  as  well  as  by  Bishop  Seabury,  as  seeming  to  in- 
volve a  subjection  of  the  highest  order  of  the  ministry  to 
the  lower  orders  and  to  the  laity  (a  view  which  Dr.  White 
disclaimed).  It  provided  for  the  ratification  of  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  as  altered ;  and  set  forth  a  Declaration, 
essentially  in  the  form  at  present  in  use,  to  be  signed  by 
every  minister  before  receiving  permission  to  officiate  in 
this  church.  This  constitution,  when  ratified  by  the 
church  in  the  different  States,  was  declared  fundamental 
and  unalterable,  save  by  the  General  Convention. 

This  whole  business  of  forming  a  constitution  before  the 
accession  of  the  episcopate  was  justified  by  the  conviction 
of  its  practical  necessity.^  It  was  done  to  prevent  the 
church  in  different  localities  from  taking  different  courses 
in  ecclesiastical  legislation  (and  that  without  schism,  as 
there  was  as  yet  no  ecclesiastical  bond  of  union) ;  to  pre- 
vent the  adoption  of  different  liturgies,  different  articles, 
or  an  episcopate  from  different  sources;  in  fact,  to  prevent 
the  formation  of  many  independent  churches,  instead  of 
one  communion  for  the  whole  country.  Its  success  in 
this  direction  confirms  the  wisdom  of  its  advocates,  and 
especially  the  statesmanlike  prevision  of  its  chief  originator. 
Dr.  White.  In  view  of  the  widely  variant  principles 
manifest  in  separate  portions  of  the  country,  it  is,  to  quote 
1  White,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Church,"  pp.  109,  no. 


THE  ADDRESS    TO    THE  ENGLISH  BISHOPS.        349 

Dr.  White's  own  expression,  "  far  from  being  certain  that 
the  same  event  would  have  been  produced  by  any  other 
plan  that  might  have  been  devised."  The  adoption  of 
the  constitution  with  amendments  at  the  General  Con- 
vention of  1789  created  a  church,  as  the  simultaneous 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  created 
a  nation. 

The  Address  to  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  the 
Church  of  England/  asking  for  the  episcopal  succession  at 
their  hands,  was  also  a  most  important  act  of  the  Con- 
vention. 

The  letter  of  Bishop  Seabury  to  Dr.  Smith  had  been 
laid  before  the  delegates,  as  the  author  had  requested,  and 
its  sentiments  created  some  warmth  of  expression  from 
those  of  conflicting  opinions.  The  fact  that  the  bishop 
and  the  Connecticut  clergy  had  been  invited  to  the  Con- 
vention made  it  eminently  proper  that  the  communication 
should  be  heard ;  and  when  this  was  pointed  out  the  com- 
motion subsided.  The  letter,  however,  had  a  decided 
effect  on  the  Address  to  the  English  bishops.  "The 
majority  of  the  Convention  certainly  thought  it  a  matter 
of  choice,  and  even  required  by  decency,  to  apply,  in  the 
first  instance,  to  the  church  of  which  the  American  had 
been,  till  now,  a  part;"  although  there  had  been  a  repug- 
nance on  the  part  of  some  to  applying  where  a  refusal  had 
been  so  constant,  and,  in  Bishop  Seabury's  case,  so  recent. 
The  door  was  open  for  a  Scotch  consecration  ;  but,  in  view 
of  the  sentiments  of  Bishop  Seabury's  letter,  those  inclined 
to  enter  it  were  convinced  that  it  would  be  better  and 
more  available  to  apply  where  there  would  be  less  stiffness 
on  the  points  objected  to  by  Bishop  Seabury,  who  reflected 
the  Scotch  view  of  the  matter.  There  was  great  unanim- 
ity, therefore,  in  the  application  to  England. 

1  See  Appendix  C. 


350  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xiii. 

The  Address  was  written  by  Dr.  White,  and  reflects  his 
character  in  the  dignity  and  courtesy  of  its  style,  and  the 
absence,  in  all  its  earnestness  and  anxiety,  of  flattery  or 
fawning.  It  asked  what  he  felt  the  church  had  a  right  to 
demand.  It  referred  with  gratitude  to  the  past  and  pointed 
out  the  necessities  of  the  present.  "  The  petition  which  we 
offer  to  your  venerable  Body  is,"  it  stated,  "  that,  from  a 
tender  regard  to  the  religious  interests  of  thousands  in  this 
rising  empire,  professing  the  same  religious  principles  with 
the  Church  of  England,  you  will  be  pleased  to  confer  the 
episcopal  character  on  such  persons  as  shall  be  recom- 
mended by  this  church  in  the  several  States  here  repre- 
sented." It  .said,  in  relation  to  the  political  side  of  the 
subject,  "  Our  civil  rulers  cannot  ofiicially  join  in  the 
present  application  ;  but  we  are  far  from  apprehending  the 
opposition  or  even  displeasure  of  any  of  those  honorable 
personages ;  and  in  this  business  we  are  justified  by  the 
constitutions  of  the  States,  which  are  the  foundations  and 
control  of  all  our  laws. 

There  had  been  numerous  intimations  from  various 
quarters  that  an  application  to  the  English  bishops  would 
not  be  in  vain.  Granville  Sharp,  in  his  letter  to  Dr. 
Franklin,  while  deprecating  the  consecration  of  Seabury 
by  the  Scotch  bishops,  had  advised  an  appeal  to  England. 
Dr.  Murray  had  declared  his  belief  that  a  request  from 
a  regularly  constituted  Convention  would  not  be  unsuc- 
cessful. Bishop  Seabury,  in  his  letter  so  distasteful  to 
the  Convention,  had  indicated  a  way  to  obviate  the  diffi- 
culties he  had  encountered. 

With  so  hopeful  a  view  of  the  situation,  great  pains 
were  taken  to  make  the  Address  successful.  It  was  re- 
solved by  the  Convention,  "  in  order  to  assure  their  lord- 
ships of  the  legality  of  the  present  proposed  applica- 
tion, that  the  deputies  now  assembled  be  desired  to  make 


FRIENDLY  ACTION  OF  JOHN  ADAMS.  35  I 

a  respectful  address  to  the  civil  rulers  of  the  States  in 
which  they  respectively  reside,  to  certify  that  the  said 
application  is  not  contrary  to  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  same."  In  consequence  of  this,  Pennsylvania, 
New  York,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  through  their  chief 
officers,  gave  the  desired  certification ;  and  the  names  of 
Charles  Biddle,  George  Clinton,  and  Patrick  Henry  were 
found  appended  to  the  documents  from  their  respective 
States. 

John  Adams  was  then  minister  to  the  court  of  St. 
James ;  and  his  assistance,  not  officially  as  foreign  minister, 
but  as  a  private  individual  of  commanding  position,  was 
sought  in  the  matter.  Though  he  had  no  connection  with 
the  Episcopal  Church,  he  had  previously  interested  him- 
self in  obtaining  ordination  from  the  Danish  bishops  for 
several  candidates  for  orders^  who  could  not,  after  the 
acknowledgment  of  American  independence,  obtain  ordi- 
nation from  the  Bishop  of  London.  He  had  succeeded 
then,  and  he  now  presented  the  Address  of  the  Convention 
to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  person,  and  accom- 
panied it  with  such  explanations  and  documents  as  were 
calculated  to  forward  the  object.  He  afterward  took 
occasion  to  express  his  satisfaction  that  he  had  been  able 
to  be  of  service  in  the  matter.  Undoubtedly  he  was  of 
great  service.  Official  station  had  then,  as  now,  great 
weight  in  England ;  and  the  fact  that  Mr.  Adams  was  a 
Congregationalist  gave  assurance  that  no  opposition  of 
a  civil  nature  was  likely  to  be  aroused  by  granting  the 
request. 

In  voting  the  Address  the  Convention  recommended  to 
the  Conventions  of  the  respective  States  to  elect  bishops 
for  their  several  jurisdictions,  and  to  provide  that  their 
respective    bishops    be   called   "The   Right   Rev.    A.    B., 

1  White,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Church,"  p.  17. 


352  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  C.  D.,"  and 
as  bishops  have  no  other  title. 

Further,  the  Convention  appointed  a  committee  with 
various  powers,  among  which  was  the  one  of  correspond- 
ing during  the  recess  with  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
of  England.  It  then  adjourned  (October  7th),  to  meet 
again  in  Philadelphia  June  20,  1786.1 

The  Address  was  at  once  sent  to  England.  Much  solic- 
itude was  felt  as  to  its  reception.  Dr.  Provoost,  who  was 
an  ardent  patriot  and  a  lukewarm  divine,  took  counsel  of 
his  prejudices  and  his  fears,  and  apprehended  much 
opposition  from  Bishop  Seabury,  which  apprehension  he 
was  not  reluctant  to  express.  He  was  not  an  unkindly- 
man;  but  Seabury's  service  as  chaplain  in  the  royalist 
army,  and  his  English  pension  in  consequence,  together 
with  his  intense  Toryism,  were  an  offense  to  him.  The 
offense  was  heightened  by  Seabury's  acceptance  of  orders 
from  the  nonjurors,  whose  political  views  he  equally 
detested,  and  whose  whole  ecclesiastical  attitude  was 
uncongenial  to  him.  He  was  a  man  of  learning,  having 
graduated  at  the  first  commencement  of  King's  (Columbia) 
College  in  1758,  when  he  transferred  his  membership  from 
the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  in  which  he  had  been  bred, 
to  the  Episcopal  Church,  of  which  Dr.  Johnson,  the  presi- 
dent, was  so  ardent  an  advocate.  He  afterward  studied 
at  St.  Peter's  College,  Cambridge,  England,  and  was 
ordained  deacon  and  priest  in  London  (1766).  At  once, 
on  his  return,  he  was  made  an  assistant  minister  of  Trinity 
Church,  New  York,  from  which  position  he  retired  during 
the  war,  on  account  of  his  loyalty,  being  opposed  in  poli- 
tics to  the  rector  and  his  coadjutors.  He  had  since  the 
war  become  rector  of  the  parish,  being  elected  thereto 
immediately  after  the  peace  in  1784,  when  it  was  the  turn 

l  White,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Church,"  p.  22. 


REV.  DR.  SAMUEL  PROVOOST.  353 

for  the  Tory  rector  to  retire.  His  accomplishments  and 
social  geniality  made  him  a  conspicuous  and  popular  man 
in  the  community,  and  his  nomination  as  first  Bishop  of 
New  York  seemed  to  be  a  foregone  conclusion.  While  he 
was  no  devotee,  he  was  never  lax  in  his  conduct,  and  his 
characteristics  as  a  theologian  were  akin  to  those  of  his  per- 
sonal character.  He  was  a  fair  specimen  of  the  Georgian 
divine  of  the  better  class.  He  stood  equally  aloof  from  the 
dogmatic  assertiveness  of  the  High-churchmen  and  the 
fervent  enthusiasm  of  the  Evangelicals.  He  would  prob- 
ably be  classed  as  a  latitudinarian  doctrinally  and  ecclesi- 
astically ;  but  he  lacked  both  the  philosophical  depth  and 
the  moral  enthusiasm  of  those  of  the  Cambridge  divines 
designated  by  that  name.  He  was  thus  out  of  touch  with 
the  religious  elements  working  in  the  community  where 
he  lived,  while  as  a  scholar  and  social  leader  he  was  held 
in  high  esteem.  His  course,  therefore,  in  regard  to  Bishop 
Seabury,  which  was  one  of  unrelenting  opposition,  polit- 
ically, doctrinally,  and  ecclesiastically,  is  explicable  though 
not  excusable.  There  was  not  in  his  case,  as  in  White's, 
the  solicitude  of  a  deep  moral  earnestness  to  keep  a  curb 
on  his  prejudices  and  passions.  He  made  up  for  his 
moderation  in  the  church  by  his  animosity  against  individual 
churchmen,  and  came  near  making  church  unity  impossible. 
In  view  of  such  impetuosity  as  that  of  Provoost  and  such 
pertinacity  as  that  of  Seabury,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Dr. 
White,  speaking  of  the  adjourned  meeting  of  1786,  should 
say,  "  The  Convention  assembled  under  circumstances 
which  bore  strong  appearances  of  a  dissolution  of  the 
union  in  this  early  stage  of  it." 

The  partisan  expectations  of  Provoost  in  regard  to 
Bishop  Seabury's  action  were  not  justified.  The  latter 
wrote  to  Dr.  White  early  in  1786,  and,  while  he  still 
strongly  objected  to  much  which  he  had  heard  about  the 


354  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

Convention,  said,  "  I  assure  you  no  one  will  endeavor 
more  to  effect  the  cordial  union  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
through  the  continent  than  I  shall,  provided  it  be  on 
Episcopal  principles."  ^  Letters  were,  hovvever,  received 
by  Dr.  White  from  Drs.  Duche,  Alexander  Murray,  and 
Charles  Inglis,  from  England,  expressing  great  alarm  lest 
the  proceedings  of  the  Philadelphia  Convention  should 
prevent,  and  rightly,  a  favorable  answer  from  the  bishops 
to  the  Address. 

The  answer  came  by  the  middle  of  May,  and  was  com- 
municated to  Dr.  White  by  Dr.  Provoost,  who  also  laid  it 
before  the  New  York  Convention.  The  adjourned  General 
Convention  met  in  Philadelphia  to  consider  it,  June  20, 
1786.  Seven  States  were  represented.  There  were  four- 
teen clergymen  and  twelve  laymen  present;  but  of  these 
only  eight  of  the  clergy  and  three  of  the  laity  had  been 
present  at  the  meeting  in  1785.  At  this  meeting  Hon. 
John  Jay,  the  first  chief-justice  of  the  United  States,  made 
his  first  appearance  in  the  general  councils  of  the  church. 
Rev.  Dr.  Griffith,  of  Virginia,  was  made  president,  and 
Hon.  Francis  Hopkinson,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  was  chosen  secretary.  The  first  business  in 
order  was  the  reading  and  consideration  of  the  letter  of  the 
English  bishops  in  answer  to  the  Address  sent  by  the  last 
Convention  to  them.-  It  was  a  friendly  but  cautious  reply. 
It  expressed  great  interest  in  the  movement  to  organize 
an  American  Episcopal  Church,  and  pledged  the  best 
endeavors  of  the  bishops  to  acquire  a  legal  capacity  of 
complying  with  the  prayer  of  the  Address.  It  also  ex- 
pressed anxiety  concerning  the  alterations  in  the  formu- 
laries, of  which  they  had  as  yet  only  learned  through 
private  channels,  and  concluded  as  follows :   "  While  we 

1  Beardsley,  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Samuel  Seabury,  D.D.," 
p.  252. 


TROUBLES  IN   THE    GENERAL    CONVENTION.       355 

are  anxious  to  give  every  proof  not  only  of  our  brotherly 
affection,  but  of  our  facility  in  forwarding  your  wishes,  we 
cannot  but  be  extremely  cautious  lest  we  should  be  the 
instruments  of  establishing  an  ecclesiastical  system  which 
will  be  called  a  branch  of  the  Church  of  England,  but 
afterward  may  possibly  appear  to  have  departed  from  it 
essentially,  either  in  doctrine  or  discipline." 

The  resolutions  passed  concerning  this  letter  expressed 
the  trust  that  the  Convention  would  be  able  to  give  such 
information  to  the  venerable  prelates  as  would  satisfy  them 
that  no  essential  deviation  from  the  Church  of  England 
had  been  adopted  or  intended ;  and  a  committee,  consist- 
ing of  Drs.  Smith,  White,  and  Wharton,  and  Messrs. 
James  Parker  and  Cyrus  Griffin,  was  appointed  to  draft  a 
reply  to  the  letter. 

The  allusion  in  the  letter  to  private  information  of  an 
alarming  character  seems  to  have  stirred  up  some  bitter 
feeling  among  the  members  of  the  Convention  in  regard  to 
the  New  England  element,  known  to  be  in  opposition.  A 
motion  to  require  the  clergy  present  to  declare  by  whom 
they  were  ordained,  and  one  to  pledge  the  Convention 
to  do  no  act  that  should  imply  the  validity  of  ordinations 
made  by  Dr.  Seabury,  were  made  and  lost.  But  other 
resolutions  were  adopted  recommending  that  "  clergy- 
men professing  canonical  subjection  to  any  bishop  in  any 
State  or  country,  other  than  those  bishops  who  may 
be  duly  settled  in  the  States  represented  in  the  Con- 
vention, be  not  received  to  a  pastoral  charge  "  ;  and,  again, 
that  no  "  minister  receiving  ordination  from  any  bishop 
residing  in  America,  during  the  application  now  pending 
to  the  English  bishops  for  English  consecration,  be 
admitted  as  minister  in  the  States  represented  in  the 
Convention." 

These  resolutions  were  regarded  by  many  as  affronts  to 


356  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

Bishop  Seabury.  Dr.  White,  the  author  of  the  first, 
disclaimed  any  such  intention.  Dr.  Robert  Smith,  of 
course,  alluded  to  him  in  offering  the  second.  It  is  but 
fair  to  remember,  however,  that  in  addition  to  the  irritation 
produced  by  the  attitude  of  Connecticut  and  Massachu- 
setts, whose  clergy,  it  was  feared  (though  wrongly),  were 
trying  to  defeat  the  application  to  England,  great  anxiety 
existed  lest  a  seeming  approbation  of  the  Scotch  conse- 
cration should  itself  defeat  the  application  for  English 
orders ;  the  relation  of  the  English  hierarchy  to  the  non- 
jurors being  what  it  was. 

A  memorial  from  the  church  in  New  Jersey,  said  to 
have  been  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Chandler,  was  received  and 
referred  "  to  the  first  General  Convention  which  shall 
assemble  with  sufficient  powers  to  determine  on  the  same." 
This  memorial  approved  of  the  application  to  England  for 
consecration,  and  of  the  Address  in  which  it  had  been 
made.  It  also  approved  of  the  alterations  in  the  Hturgy, 
in  respect  to  its  political  changes,  which  had  already 
been  adopted.  But  it  strongly  objected  to  the  sweeping 
changes  in  the  "  Proposed  Book  "  yet  under  consideration, 
as  unseasonable  and  irregular,  and  likely  to  occasion 
dissension  and  schisms,  and  urged  that  these  might 
prove  a  fatal  obstacle  to  obtaining  bishops  of  the  English 
succession. 

While  the  answer  to  the  letter  of  the  English  bishops 
was  preparing,  the  various  amendments  to  the  proposed 
constitution  were  adopted,  tending  to  obviate  the  objection 
that  it  degraded  the  episcopal  office.  To  Section  V.  the 
phrase  was  added,  "  And  a  bishop  shall  always  preside  in 
the  General  Convention,  if  any  of  the  episcopal  order  be 
present."  To  Section  VIII.  the  words  were  added,  "At 
every  trial  of  a  bishop  there  shall  be  one  or  more  of  the 
episcopal  order  present,  and  none  but  a  bishop  shall  pro- 


REPLY   TO    THE  ENGLISH  BISHOPS.  357 

nounce   sentence  of  deposition  or  degradation  from  the 
ministry  on  any  clergyman," 

The  "  Proposed  Book  "  was  authorized  to  be  used  by 
the  church  in  those  States  which  adopted  it,  until  the  first 
General  Convention,  with  sufficient  power  to  ratify  a  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  should  assemble.  The  moral  and 
doctrinal  requirements  for  candidates  for  ordination  and 
parochial  cures  were  also  strengthened  and  emphasized. 

The  churches  in  the  several  States  represented  in  the 
convention  were  recommended  to  authorize  their  deputies 
to  the  next  General  Convention,  after  a  bishop  or  bishops 
had  been  obtained,  to  ratify  a  general  constitution. 

The  draft  of  the  reply  to  the  English  bishops,  composed 
by  Dr.  William  Smith  and  amended  by  Hon.  John  Jay, 
was  then  read  and  adopted.  It  acquiesced  in  the  wisdom 
of  the  bishops'  hesitation  to  act  while  doubts  existed  con- 
cerning the  maintenance  of  the  same  essential  articles  of 
faith  and  discipline  with  the  Church  of  England.  At  the 
same  time  it  expressed  satisfaction  that  no  other  obstacle 
was  likely  to  stand  in  the  way,  as  they  trusted  that  the 
proposed  ecclesiastical  constitution  and  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  which  were  now  sent,  would  afiford  a  full  answer 
to  every  question  which  could  arise  on  the  subject.  They 
therefore  renewed  their  application  with  gratitude  and 
confidence,  and  asked  for  a  speedy  answer,  as  in  certain 
States  the  church  had  proceeded  to  the  election  of  persons 
to  be  sent  for  consecration,  and  others  might  soon  proceed 
to  the  same. 

When  this  reply  had  been  signed,  the  committee  on 
correspondence  was  empowered  to  call  a  General  Conven- 
tion at  Wilmington,  Del,  whenever  a  majority  of  It  should 
think  fit ;  and  the  Convention  adjourned  June  26th. 

Shortly  after  the  adjournment  another  letter  was  received 
from  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  York,  written 


358  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

after  their  receipt  of  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  (as 
enacted  October,  1785)  and  the  "Proposed  Book,"  which 
had  come  to  hand  soon  after  the  adjournment  in  June.  It 
declared  that  a  bill  empowering  them  to  consecrate  bish- 
ops for  America  had  been  prepared,  and  would  doubt- 
less soon  be  passed  by  Parliament,  notwithstanding  their 
strong  dissatisfaction  with  most  of  the  liturgical  changes  in 
the  "  Proposed  Book."  They  insisted  on  the  restoration 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed  in  its  integrity,  and  urged  the 
retention  of  the  Nicene  and  Athanasian  creeds,  even 
though  the  use  of  them  should  be  left  discretional.  They 
required,  also,  that  candidates  for  episcopal  consecration 
should  bring  both  a  testimonial  from  the  General  Conven- 
tion, with  as  many  signatures  as  possible,  and  a  more 
particular  one  from  the  respective  Conventions  in  those 
States  which  recommended  them. 

In  regard  to  the  ecclesiastical  constitution,  they  strongly 
objected  to  Section  VIII.,  which  seemed  to  render  possible 
the  trial  of  a  bishop  by  presbyters  and  laymen ;  but  this 
had  already  been  in  great  measure  obviated  by  the  amend- 
ment at  the  June  Convention. 

Shortly  after  the  receipt  of  this  letter  a  communication 
came  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  inclosing  the  act 
of  Parliament  authorizing  the  consecration  of  bishops  for 
America,  and  announcing  that  it  was  decided  to  consecrate 
only  three  bishops.  All  things  were  now  ripe  for  the 
reassembling  of  the  Convention  at  Wilmington,  as  had  been 
provided  for.  It  came  together  on  the  loth  of  October, 
1 786,  at  the  call  of  the  committee  on  correspondence, 
as  an  adjourned  Convention.  Before  its  assembly  a  num- 
ber of  things  had  happened  which  influenced  and  gave 
direction  to  its  proceedings,  besides  the  answer  of  the 
English  bishops.  After  a  voluminous  correspondence, 
Dr.  William  Smith,  with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  White  and 


THREE  BISHOPS  ELECTED.  359 

Dr.  Wharton,  had  completed  and  issued  the  "  Proposed 
Book  "  ;  but  from  the  course  taken  in  regard  to  it  by  the 
various  State  Conventions,  "  it  was  evident  that,"  to  quote 
the  words  of  Dr.  White,  "  in  regard  to  the  Hturgy,  the 
labors  of  the  Convention  had  not  reached  their  object." 
New  Jersey  had  rejected  it.  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania 
had  proposed  amendments.  Delaware  had  not  acted. 
New  York  held  its  decision  in  suspense,  Virginia  had 
accepted  it  with  the  rejection  of  the  rubric  concerning 
the  repelling  of  evil-doers  from  the  communion.  South 
Carolina  alone  had  adopted  it  entire.  New  England  was 
lukewarm,  and  Connecticut  was  against  it.  Under  such  a 
state  of  opinion,  concessions  to  the  objections  of  the  Eng- 
lish bishops  were  not  difficult. 

In  the  meantime  three  bishops  had  been  chosen  in 
addition  to  Dr.  William  Smith,  the  Bishop  elect  of  Mary- 
land. Dr.  Griffith  had  been  elected,  at  the  second  Con- 
vention of  Virginia  (held  in  May,  1786),  bishop  of  that 
State ;  Rev.  Samuel  Provoost  (made  Doctor  of  Divinity 
three  weeks  later  by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania)  had 
been  elected  Bishop  of  New  York  at  the  Convention  of 
the  church  in  that  State  (held  June  13th) ;  and  Dr.  William 
White  had,  at  a  special  Convention  held  at  Philadelphia 
(September  14th),  been  chosen  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania. 

When  the  Convention  assembled  at  Wilmington,  Octo- 
ber lOth,  Virginia  was  not  represented.  Dr.  Griffith  hav- 
ing written  Dr.  White  that  he  thought  he  had  no  right 
to  a  seat  without  a  new  election.  Only  six,  therefore,  of 
the  States  represented  in  the  June  Convention  were  repre- 
sented here,  and  there  were  only  nine  clerical  and  eleven 
lay  deputies  present.  The  chief  men,  however,  were 
there ;  and  Provoost  of  New  York,  Ogden  of  New  Jersey, 
White  of  Pennsylvania,  Wharton  of  Delaware.  Robert 
Smith  of  South  Carolina,  and  William  Smith  of  Maryland 


360  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

fairly  represented  the  opinions,  and  more  than  represented 
the  ability,  of  the  clergy  of  the  several  States.  Rev.  Dr. 
Provoost,  Bishop  elect  of  New  York,  was  made  chairman 
in  the  absence  of  Dr.  Griffith,  and  the  Convention  was 
declared  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Conven- 
tion. The  letter  of  the  archbishop  and  the  accompanying 
act  of  Parliament  were  at  once  considered,  and  referred  to 
an  able  committee,  whose  report  was  established  as  "An 
Act  of  the  General  Convention."  In  this  act  the  commit- 
tee acceded  to  the  urgent  request  of  the  archbishops  and 
restored  the  Apostles'  Creed  to  its  integrity.  They  also 
adopted  and  inserted  the  Nicene  Creed,  and  made  the 
necessary  changes  involved  in  the  preface,  the  rubrics,  and 
the  Articles  of  the  "  Proposed  Book."  The  Athanasian 
Creed  was  rejected  almost  unanimously.^  The  form  to  be 
subscribed  by  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  concerning  the 
Prayer-book  was  accommodated  to  the  present  state  of 
affairs;  and  the  English  Prayer-book,  as  amended  in  its 
political  parts  by  the  previous  Convention,  was  made  the 
standard  until  a  General  Convention  with  full  powers  had 
acted  on  the  liturgy.  Section  VIII.  of  the  constitution, 
as  amended  by  the  last  Convention,  having  obviated 
the  objection  of  the  English  prelates  in  regard  to  the  posi- 
tion of  the  bishops,  was  retained  ;  and  bishops  elect  seeking 
consecration  were  empowered  to  sign  either  the  ecclesias- 
tical constitution  or  the  "Act  of  this  Convention"  now 
forwarded  to  the  bishops  in  England,  together  with  a  letter 
of  thanks  for  their  action,  and  signed  by  Samuel  Provoost, 
president.     On  a  call  of  the  States  represented,  to  ascertain 

1  Bishop  Seabury  had,  in  correspondence  with  Dr.  White,  urged  the  inser- 
tion of  the  Athanasian  Creed,  even  if  the  use  of  it  were  left  optional,  or  the 
damnatory  clauses  omitted.  Dr.  Parker,  of  Massachusetts,  who  usually 
agreed  with  him,  opposed  its  insertion,  unless  the  said  clauses  were  omitted ; 
and  he  demurred  to  the  insertion  of  the  "  descent  into  hell  "  in  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  afifirming  it  to  be  a  late  addition  to  the  creed,  and  misleading  in  its 
phraseology.     (See  *'  Half-century  of  Legislation,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  326.) 


WHITE  AND  PROVOOST  SAIL.  36 1 

whether  bishops  had  been  elected  by  the  respective  Con- 
ventions of  the  same,  New  York  responded  with  the  name 
of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Provoost,  D.D.,  and  Pennsylvania  with 
the  name  of  the  Rev.  William  White,  D.D.,  as  bishops  elect. 
Their  testimonials  were  signed  by  the  members  of  the  Con- 
vention in  the  form  prescribed  by  the  archbishops ;  and  as  it 
appeared  that  the  Convention  of  Virginia,  not  represented, 
had  elected  and  recommended  the  Rev.  Dr.  David  Griffith 
as  bishop,  his  testimonials  were  also  signed.  A  commit- 
tee of  correspondence  was  appointed,  with  power  to  call  a 
General  Convention  at  Philadelphia  when  a  majority  of 
them  should  see  fit ;  and  the  Convention  then  adjourned 
sine  die,  on  October  iith.i  As  Bishop  George  Burgess, 
of  Maine,  at  a  later  period  remarked,  "  No  assembly  of  the 
American  church  has  occupied  itself  with  transactions  of 
greater  pregnancy  than  those  which,  in  October,  1786, 
were  settled  by  the  voices  of  twenty  men  in  two  days." 
Their  rapidity  of  action  was,  however,  not  haste;  it  was 
the  result  of  long  and  earnest  premeditation. 

It  brought  forth  immediate  fruit.  Three  weeks  after 
the  Convention  adjourned,  namely,  on  November  2,  1786, 
the  two  Bishops  elect  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
embarked  for  England  on  the  packet  "  Speedy."  Dr. 
Griffith,  of  Virginia,  did  not  accompany  them,  being  de- 
tained by  private  circumstances ;  and  it  is  known  that 
poverty  prevented  his  taking  the  voyage  both  now  and  at 
a  later  period.  He  was  never  consecrated.  Drs.  White 
and  Provoost  reached  Falmouth  in  less  than  three  weeks, 
landing  November  20th.  They  were  in  London  Novem- 
ber 29th,  and  waited  at  once  on  Mr.  Adams,  the  American 
minister.     His    cordiality   and    interest   were    abundantly 

1  The  records  of  the  Convention  say  nothing  of  Dr.  William  Smith's  appli- 
cation for  testimonials  as  Bishop  of  Maryland.  If  made,  it  was  not  granted; 
and  Dr.  Smith  had  no  vote  in  the  Convention,  because  there  was  no  lay  dele- 
gate from  Maryland,  which  made  the  representation  of  the  State  incomplete. 


362  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

manifested,  though  he  had  no  personal  interest  in  the 
Episcopal  Church.  He  accompanied  the  bishops  elect  to 
Lambeth,  the  day  after  their  call  upon  him,  and  presented 
them  in  person  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and,  in 
the  words  of  Bishop  White, ^  "  in  this  particular,  and  in 
ever-y  instance  in  which  his  personal  attentions  could  be 
either  of  use  or  an  evidence  of  his  respect  and  kindness, 
continued  to  manifest  his  concern  for  the  interests  of  a 
church  of  which  he  was  not  a  member."  Dr.  Lowth, 
Bishop  of  London,  was  also  visited  in  his  feebleness ;  and, 
after  many  interviews  with  the  bishops  and  other  clergy. 
Dr.  White  could  write,  early  in  December,  to  the  standing 
committee  of  Pennsylvania,  that  there  was  "  not  the  least 
doubt  of  our  church's  having  retained  the  essential  doc- 
trines of  the  gospel  as  held  by  the  Church  of  England." 
This  was  predicated  of  the  position  held  by  the  "  Proposed 
Book,"  as  amended  by  the  insertion  of  the  unmutilated 
Apostles'  and  Nicene  creeds.  Concerning  the  omission  of 
the  Athanasian  Creed,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  stated 
to  Dr.  White,  "  We  sincerely  wish  that  you  had  retained 
the  Athanasian  Creed,  but  I  cannot  say  I  am  uneasy  on 
the  subject,  for  you  have  retained  the  doctrine  of  it  in 
your  liturgy ;  and,  as  to  the  creed  itself,  T  suppose  you 
thought  it  not  suited  to  the  use  of  a  congregation."^  In 
fine,  the  cordiality  and  graciousness  of  the  reception  of 
the  two  American  divines  could  not  have  been  exceeded. 
They  called  on  all  the  bishops  to  thank  them  for  their 
good  offices,  and  were  welcomed  everywhere.  They  were 
presented  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  the  King, 
who  was  pleased  to  reply  to  Dr.  White's  brief  address  of 
thanks  for  his  kindness  in  the  matter  of  the  consecration, 
"  His  Grace  has  given  me  such  an  account  of  the  gentle- 

1  White,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Church"  (edition  1880),  p.  26. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  134. 


CONSECRATION  OF    WHITE  AND  PROVOOST.        363 

men  who  have  come  over  that  I  am  glad  of  the  present 
opportunity  of  serving  the  interests  of  rehgion." 

At  last  the  prescribed  formahties  were  completed,  and 
the  eventful  day,  so  long  desired,  dawned.  It  was  Sep- 
tuagesima  Sunday,  February  4,  1787.  A  little  company 
assembled  in  the  chapel  of  Lambeth  Palace,  consisting 
chiefly  of  the  archbishop's  family  and  household,  together 
with  the  officiating  clergy.  At  Dr.  White's  special  request, 
his  old  rector,  Dr.  Duche,  whom  he  had  now  displaced  in  the 
rectorship  of  Christ  Church,  was  present,  a  token  of  good- 
fellowship  amid  differences  so  characteristic  of  all  the 
coming  bishops'  course.  The  sermon  was  preached  by 
Dr.  Drake,  a  chaplain  of  the  archbishop,  on  1  Corinthians 
xiv.  10,  and,  as  Dr.  White  relates,  "  had  very  little  refer- 
ence to  the  peculiarity  of  the  occasion."  Another  chaplain 
read  the  prayers.  It  seemed  like  a  private  service  of  the 
archbishop,  with  the  consecration  added.  The  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  Dr.  John  Moore,  was  the  consecrator.  The 
Archbishop  of  York,  Dr.  William  Markham,  was  the  pre- 
senter. The  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,^  Dr.  Charles 
More,  and  the  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  Dr.  John  Wick- 
liffe,  joined  in  the  imposition  of  hands.  Dr.  White, 
though  the  younger  man  and  clergyman,  and  whose  elec- 
tion to  the  bishopric  was  subsequent  to  that  of  Dr.  Pro- 
voost,  was  ordained  first, ^  because  of  the  English  custom 
of  awarding  priority  to  the  one  who  had  longest  been 
Doctor  of  Divinity.  Bishop  White's  doctorate  had  pre- 
ceded Bishop  Provoost's  by  several  years,  and  thus  he 
became  the  first  bishop  of  the  English  succession  in  the 

1  As  the  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  had  been  the  most  strenuous  in  his  in- 
sistence on  restoring  the  omitted  article  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  in  the  "  Pro- 
posed Book,"  it  was  particularly  gratifying  to  the  new  bishops  to  have,  in  his 
participation  in  the  service,  an  evidence  of  his  satisfaction  and  confidence. 

2  See  Perry,  "  History  of  American  Episcopal  Church,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  74, 
note. 


364  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

United  States,  and  patriarch  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church. 

Momentous  as  was  the  service  of  this  day,  it  seemed 
almost  like  a  family  gathering.  The  quiet  and  seclusion 
of  the  upper  chamber  from  which  the  apostles  went  forth 
anointed  with  the  Holy  Ghost  pervaded  the  whole  proceed- 
ing. Its  significance  was,  of  course,  dimly  apprehended 
by  the  chief  actors,  for  they  had  not  the  gift  of  prophecy ; 
but  those  who  received  their  commission  thus  quietly  felt 
the  full  weight  of  the  occasion,  and  recorded  their  prayers 
for  God's  blessing  upon  it. 

After  the  family  service  came  the  family  dinner  with  the 
archbishop,  in  which  all  the  bishops,  old  and  new,  partici- 
pated ;  and  after  strong  words  of  gratitude  and  confidence 
on  both  sides,  the  young  American  prelates  took  their  final 
leave,  and  the  very  next  day  set  out  for  Falmouth,  whence 
they  were  to  sail  for  home.  Though  they  reached  Fal- 
mouth on  the  loth  of  the  month,  they  were  detained  by 
contrary  winds  until  Quinquagesima  Sunday,  February 
1 8th,  when  they  embarked.  The  contrary  winds  continued, 
so  that  they  were  seven  weeks  on  the  voyage,  and  only 
reached  New  York  on  the  afternoon  of  Easter  Sunday, 
April  7th.  They  were  warmly  received,  and  the  hearts  of 
the  constitutional  churchmen  were  greatly  cheered. 

The  new  bishops  speedily  received  the  congratulations 
of  those  who  had  sent  them  and  signed  their  testimonials, 
but  not  of  those  only.  Three  weeks  after  their  arrival 
Bishop  Seabury  wrote  a  letter  of  congratulation  to  each 
of  them,  expressing  his  anxiety  for  the  union  and  con- 
cord of  the  church,  and  as  an  evidence  of  his  sincerity 
inviting  them  to  a  convocation  of  the  Connecticut  clergy 
to  be  held  shortly  at  Stamford,  to  consult  concerning  it. 
Bishop  White  could  not,  and  Bishop  Provoost  would  not, 
go  ;  but  Bishop  White,  in  his  answer,  while  saying,  "  There 


CONNECTICUT  ELECTS  A    COADJUTOR  BISHOP.     365 

is  nothing  I  have  more  at  heart  tlian  to  see  the  members  of 
our  communion  throughout  the  United  States  connected 
in  one  system  of  ecclesiastical  government,"  and  showing 
a  disposition  to  accommodate  the  revision  of  the  liturgy 
to  a  general  sentiment,  stood  firmly  by  the  principles  of 
the  ecclesiastical  constitution  already  proposed,  especially 
its  feature  of  lay  representation.  He  pointed  out  that  the 
approbation  of  all  the  Conventions  southward,  and  the 
acquiescence  of  the  English  archbishops  and  bishops  who 
had  consecrated  the  authors  of  it,  indicated  that  union 
could  only  come  along  that  constitutional  line.  There 
were  also  very  friendly  and  earnest  letters  from  Dr.  Leam- 
ing  of  Connecticut  and  Dr.  Parker  of  Boston,  all  contem- 
plating union,  but  not  silent  concerning  obstacles  in  the 
way. 

It  had  been  recognized  by  the  Connecticut  clergy,  just 
after  the  consecrations  in  England,  what  a  strong  advantage 
would  be  conferred  on  the  constitutional  party  by  the 
presence  of  two  bishops  in  America  with  the  imprimatur 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  official  act  and  sanction. 
They  met,  therefore,  at  Wallingford,  February  27th,  on 
the  call  of  Bishop  Seabury,  about  three  weeks  after  the 
English  consecrations  had  taken  place,  and  when  the 
returning  prelates  were  a  week  out  on  their  return  voy- 
age. Then  and  there  they  chose,  first,  Rev.  Jeremiah 
Teaming,  and  on  his  declining.  Rev.  Richard  Mansfield,  of 
Derby,  and  on  his  refusal,  Rev.  Abraham  Jarvis,  as  coad- 
jutor Bishop  of  Connecticut.  There  was  no  need  of  an 
extra  bishop,  save,  to  use  the  words  of  Rev.  Samuel  (after- 
ward Bishop)  Jarvis,  "  to  obtain  the  canonical  number  of 
bishops  in  New  England  of  the  Scottish  line."  Bishop 
Seabury  was  very  frank  about  the  matter ;  and  in  the 
letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  Scotch  Bishop  Skinner, 
asking  his  cooperation,  he    expressed    himself    as   "  very 


366  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

apprehensive  that,  should  it  please  God  to  take  me  out  of 
the  world,  the  same  spirit  of  innovation  in  the  government 
and  liturgy  of  the  church  would  be  apt  to  rise  in  this  State 
which  has  done  so  much  mischief  in  our  neighborhood. 
.  .  .  Should  this  see  become  vacant,  the  clergy  may  find 
themselves  under  the  fatal  necessity  of  falling  under  the 
Southern  Establishment."  Bishop  Skinner  replied,  on  the 
part  of  his  Episcopal  brethren,  deprecating  the  proposed 
action,  but  indicating  a  willingness  to  act  in  case  "  these 
new  bishops  either  refuse  to  hold  communion  with  you,  or 
grant  it  only  on  terms  with  which  you  cannot  in  conscience 
comply."  ^ 

Measures  were  also  started  to  secure  the  election  of 
Rev.  Samuel  Parker,  of  Boston,  to  the  bishopric  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire  (in  which  region  there  were 
now  six  clergymen),  to  be  similarly  consecrated,  so  that  in 
New  England  the  Episcopal  college  in  the  Scottish  line 
might  be  complete.  The  correspondence  with  Bishops 
White  and  Provoost  was  conducted  with  this  proposed 
final  recourse  in  mind.  It  came  to  nothing.  There  was, 
after  all,  a  supreme  sense  of  the  importance  of  union,  and 
a  desire  for  it,  in  all.  The  efforts  of  Seabury,  Teaming, 
and  Parker  were  bent  toward  making  the  settlement  one 
by  the  bishops.  White  and  Provoost,  and  their  followers, 
were  committed  to  making  it  an  act  of.  the  church,  repre- 
sented by  all  orders  of  the  clergy,  together  with  the  laity. 
The  constant  plea  of  New  England  was.  Let  the  three 
bishops  meet  and  arrange  matters ;  and  when  Bishop  Sea- 
bury  made  his  very  last  proposition  for  a  consultation,  in  a 
long  communication  to  Bishop  White,  dated  June  29,  1 789, 
it  was  for  the  bishops  to  come  together,  with  certain  of 
their  clergy  as  proctors  ;  but  no  faintest  indication  appeared 
of  the  recognition  of  the  laity  in  the  matter.     To  have 

1  "  Life  of  Samuel  Seabury,  D.D.,"  pp.  293-298. 


BISHOP  SEABURY'S  POLICY.  367 

yielded  to  this  request  would  have  been  to  yield  the  whole 
question. 

Whether  cognizant  of  what  had  occurred  in  Connecticut 
or  not,  Bishop  White  was  steadfast  in  his  refusal  to  have 
Dr.  Grifhth,  of  Virginia,  consecrated  in  this  country  before 
the  full  number  of  three  bishops  should  have  been  com- 
pleted in  the  English  line.  Virginia  had  suggested  it,  and 
in  the  inability  of  Dr.  Griffith  (by  reason  of  personal 
poverty  and  the  slackness  of  subscriptions  to  meet  his 
expenses)  to  go  to  England,  the  irregularity  might  have 
been  overlooked.  But  instead  of  this,  Bishop  White  urged 
upon  Mr.  Parker,  of  Boston,  that  a  suitable  presbyter  be 
selected  for  Bishop  of  Massachusetts  and  sent  to  England 
for  consecration.  He  assigned  as  a  reason  "  the  effecting 
of  a  junction  with  our  brethren  of  Connecticut,  who  would 
thus  have  a  bishop  of  the  English  succession  of  their  own 
ecclesiastical  views,  and  with  the  three  thus  consecrated 
Bishop  Seabury  could  cooperate."  In  the  meantime 
Bishop  Seabury  was  magnif3dng  his  office  in  his  diocese. 
He  held  many  and  large  confirmations.  He  ordained  a 
number  of  priests  and  deacons.  In  September,  1787,  he 
consecrated  the  new  Church  of  St.  James  at  New  London, 
of  which  he  was  rector,  with  great  pomp,  wearing  his  scar- 
let doctor's  hood,  and,  for  the  first  time,  a  miter,  which 
he  had  imported,  and  which  he  wore  afterward  only  on 
very  stately  occasions.^  He  caused  a  temporary  coolness 
between  himself  and  Mr.  Parker  by  seeming  to  assume  too 
impressive  a  manner,  and  acted  at  this  time  as  if  impelled 
to  vindicate  an  office  and  authority  whose  validity  Bishop 

1  "  He  did  not  use  the  miter  at  first,  nor  did  he  bring  one  with  him  when 
he  came  home  after  his  consecration ;  but,  when  he  found  many  of  the  non- 
Episcopal  ministers  about  him  disposed  to  adopt  the  title  of  '  bishop  '  in 
derision  of  his  claims,  he  adopted  a  miter  as  a  badge  of  office  which  they 
would  hardly  be  disposed  to  imitate."  (See  Hallam,  "  Annals  of  St.  James's 
Church,  New  London,"  p.  73.) 


368  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

Provoost  and  others  ventured  to  doubt,  if  not  assail.  It 
was  everywhere  an  unhappy  time.  The  theological  waters 
were  troubled,  and  not  by  the  stirring  of  an  angel. 

Only  two  months  after  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Sea- 
bury's  church,  King's  Chapel,  the  oldest  Episcopal  church 
in  Boston,  became  irrevocably  Unitarian.  This  change 
was  not  so  much  an  illustration  of  the  transformation  of 
species  as  an  ecclesiastical  analogy  to  the  habits  of  the 
hermit-crab.  A  new  occupant  of  an  old  institution 
changed  its  character  while  retaining  its  form.  When  the 
British  troops  occupied  Boston  they  turned  the  Old  South 
Meeting-house  into  a  riding-school.  After  their  departure 
the  dispossessed  congregation  moved  bodily  into  King's 
Chapel,  and  worshiped  there  until  their  own  building  could 
be  restored ;  the  rector  and  most  of  the  congregation  of  the 
chapel  having  migrated  to  Nova  Scotia  on  the  evacuation 
of  the  city  by  the  British  troops.  During  this  occupancy 
by  the  Congregationalists  the  churchwardens  invited  Mr. 
James  Freeman,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College  in  1777,  a 
young  man  of  twenty-three,  to  officiate  as  a  lay  reader  for 
six  months.  He  was  greatly  esteemed  and  beloved,  and 
at  Easter,  1783,  was  chosen  pastor,  and  accepted  the  posi- 
tion, having  been  informed  that  "  the  proprietors  consent 
to  such  alterations  in  the  service  as  are  made  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Parker,  and  leave  the  use  of  the  Athanasian  Creed  at  your 
discretion."  The  spirit  of  Unitarianism  was  already  rife 
among  the  Congregational  churches  of  Massachusetts,  and 
Mr.  Freeman  imbibed  it.  He  soon  found  the  liturgy  in 
its  clear  statements  inconsistent  with  the  faith  he  had  come 
to  hold;  and  in  1785  the  proprietors  sustained  him  in  the 
liturgical  alterations  he  proposed  to  make,  which  were 
such  as  involved  the  omission  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity. The  congregation,  however,  still  counted  themselves 
Episcopalians,  for  the  reason  that  they  held  to  liturgical 


DEFECTION  OF  KING'S   CHAPEL.  369 

worship;  and  they  desired  episcopal  ordination  for  their 
minister.  Mr.  Freeman  appHed  to  Bishop  Seabury  for 
orders  soon  after  his  return  from  Scotland;  but,  as  his 
profession  of  faith  was  not  more  definite  than  that  he  be- 
lieved the  Scriptures,  the  bishop  declined  to  confer  them. 
Bishop  Provoost  was  for  referring  the  case  to  the  General 
Convention,  before  which  it  was  never  brought,  as  no 
further  effort  was  made  either  by  Mr.  Freeman  or  his 
people.  On  Sunday,  October  18,  1787,  after  evening 
service,  the  senior  warden,  acting  (according  to  genuine 
Congregational  principles)  for  the  congregation,  ordained 
Mr.  Freeman  to  be  "  rector,  minister,  priest,  pastor,  teach- 
ing elder,  and  public  teacher  "  of  their  society.  The 
breach  was  complete.  The  first  Unitarian  society  was 
organized  in  the  building,  and  continued  to  hold  the  prop- 
erty, of  the  first  Episcopal  church ;  but  it  was  not  formed 
largely  out  of  the  material  of  the  Episcopal  body.  The 
claim  of  the  Unitarian  society  to  the  possession  of  the 
property  was  finally  sustained  by  the  courts,  but  it  was 
not  at  the  time  unresisted.  The  protest  was  loud  and 
clear  on  the  part  of  certain  of  the  original  proprietors  of 
the  chapel.  The  few  Episcopal  clergy  of  Boston  and  its 
vicinity  and  other  parts  of  the  country,  including  Bishop 
White,  joined  vigorously  in  the  protest ;  and  the  whole 
procedure  added  fuel  to  the  flames  of  ecclesiastical  ex- 
citement. 

The  political  condition  of  the  country  was  also  greatly 
disturbed,  and  affected  the  atmosphere  of  the  church  as 
well  as  of  the  State.  The  year  1786  had  witnessed 
Shays's  rebellion  in  Massachusetts,  and  1787  was  occupied 
in  the  widespread,  violent,  and  virulent  discussion  of  the 
proposed  Constitution  of  the  United  States  throughout  the 
country.  Excitement  charged  the  air  and  tended  to  the 
expression  of  extreme  statements  and  the  insistence  on 


370  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

extreme  measures.  Fortunately,  before  the  General  Con- 
vention of  1789,  the  political  atmosphere  cleared  consider- 
ably. The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  finally 
adopted  by  the  nine  States  necessary  for  its  ratification  in 
the  summer  of  1788.  Washington  was  chosen  President, 
and  was  inaugurated  April  30,  i  789. 

The  ecclesiastical  outlook  also  became  calmer.  Dr. 
Parker,  of  Boston,  who  had  been  urged  by  Bishop  Seabury 
to  become  a  third  bishop  in  the  Scotch  succession,  and  by 
Bishop  White  to  become  the  third  in  the  English  succes- 
sion, proposed  a  measure  to  be  presented  to  the  Conven- 
tion, which  he  hoped  would  reconcile  the  opposing  sides 
and  result  in  union.  On  June  4,  i  789,  he  had  secured  the 
election  by  the  six  presbyters  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island  of  the  Rev.  Edward  Bass,  of  Newburyport,  to  be 
their  bishop ;  and  in  the  "  Act  of  the  Clergy  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire  "  imparted  this  information 
to  the  General  Convention  in  Philadelphia,  asking  at  the 
same  time  for  the  united  assistance  of  the  Bishops  of  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Connecticut  in  the  consecration 
of  Bishop  Bass.  He  thus  hoped  that,  by  the  practical 
recognition  of  Bishop  Seabury  in  an  official  act,  the  union 
of  all  the  churches,  so  long  contemplated,  might  be  effected. 
This  request  did  soon  bring  about  the  recognition  and 
the  union  desired,  but  not  by  compliance  with  the  act 
requested. 

It  was  on  Tuesday,  July  28,  1789,  that  the  memorable 
General  Convention,  whose  action  was  to  unite  and  con- 
solidate the  church,  met  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia. 
It  was  a  time  favorable  to  such  action.  The  whole  national 
spirit  had  been  attuned  to  it  by  the  ratification  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  election  and  inauguration  of  Wash- 
ington as  first  President  of  the  United  States,  only  three 
months  before.     The  ecclesiastical  deputies  were  full  of 


GENERAL    CONVENTION  OF  1789.  37 1 

the  national  enthusiasm.  One  of  their  first  acts  was  to 
prepare  and  send  an  address  of  congratulation  to  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States. 

This  Convention  falls  into  two  parts,  the  original 
assembly  and  its  adjourned  meeting  in  September.  The 
first  session,  was  chiefly  given  to  securing  the  union  of  all 
the  Episcopal  churches  in  the  country ;  the  second  to  such 
important  legislation  as  a  full  representation  of  the  whole 
church  could  alone  adequately  enact. 

When  the  Convention  first  met,  only  the  seven  States 
previously  represented  were  present  by  deputies,  namely, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  and  South  Carolina;  and  Virginia  had  no 
clerical  delegate.  Seventeen  clergymen,  inclusive  of 
Bishop  White,  and  sixteen  laymen  constituted  the  body. 
Bishop  Provoost  was  detained  by  illness  at  home ;  and,  as 
there  could  be  no  separate  House  of  Bishops,  Bishop  White 
was  the  presiding  officer  of  the  Convention.  Official  in- 
formation was  received  from  Virginia  that  Dr.  Griffith  had 
relinquished  his  election  to  the  bishopric.  The  deputies, 
being  called,  all  gave  information  that  they  came  fully 
authorized  to  ratify  a  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  A  com- 
mittee was  appointed  on  the  proposed  constitution  and 
amendments  to  it;  and  then  came  the  presentation  of  the 
"Act  of  the  Clergy  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  " 
in  the  election  of  Rev.  Edward  Bass  to  the  episcopate,  with 
the  request  for  his  consecration  by  the  three  bishops.  The 
very  full  letters  of  Bishop  Seabury  to  Bishop  White  and 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith  were  laid  before  the  Convention, 
upon  which  it  was  resolved  unanimously  "  That  it  is  the 
opinion  of  this  Convention  that  the  consecration  of  the 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Seabury  to  the  episcopal  office  is  valid."  So 
far  a?  the  Convention  could  act  without  destroying  its  own 
validity,  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  was  now  extended. 


372  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

It  remained  to  be  seen  whether  the  Bishop  of  Connecticut 
would  grasp  it,  seeing  that  the  obnoxious  lay  element 
formed  part  of  the  Convention  which  solicited  his  presence. 
Even  before  this  vote  the  Convention  had  practically  set-' 
tied  the  point  of  the  validity  of  the  Scotch  consecration 
by  admitting  as  deputies  men  like  the.  Rev.  Joseph 
Pilmore,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  had  been  ordained  by 
Bishop  Seabury.  The  Convention,  however,  went  much 
further  than  either  this  act  or  the  resolution  recorded.  It 
adopted  the  resolutions  reported  by  the  committee  of  the 
whole,  to  whom  had  been  referred  the  "Act  of  the  Clergy 
of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire."  These  resolutions 
affirmed : 

"  First,  That  a  complete  order  of  bishops,  derived  as  well 
under  the  English  as  the  Scots  line  of  episcopacy,  existed 
in  the  United  States  in  the  persons  of  the  Bishops  of  Penn- 
sylvania, New  York,  and  Connecticut  [who  were  men- 
tioned by  name]. 

"  Second,  That  these  three  bishops  are  competent  to  every 
proper  act  and  duty  of  the  episcopal  office,  including  the 
consecration  of  other  bishops  and  the  ordaining  of  priests 
and  deacons,  and  for  government  under  the  canons  and 
constitution  of  the  church,  as  such  are  or  may  be  deter- 
mined. 

"  Third,  That  the  just  and  reasonable  requests  of  any  of 
the  sister-churches  in  the  United  States  should,  as  far  as 
possible,  be  met  by  the  Convention ;  and  therefore, 

"  Fourth,  That  Bishops  White  and  Provoost  are  requested 
to  unite  with  Bishop  Seabury  in  consecrating  Rev.  Edward 
Bass,  as  requested  by  the  'Act  of  the  Clergy  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire.' 

"  Fifth,  That  the  Convention  will  address  the  English 
archbishops  and  bishops  with  a  view  to  obviating  any 
difficulty  which  may  exist  in  regard  to  such  action." 


PARKER'S  PROPOSITION  CONCERNING  BASS.       373 

The  unanimous  adoption  of  these  resolutions  disclosed 
the  mind  of  the  Convention  in  regard  to  Bishop  Seabury. 
It  was,  however,   a  cause   of   embarrassment  to   Bishop 
White,  who,  as  chairman  of  the  Convention,  could  neither 
speak 'nor  vote.     No  one  was  more  identified  with  the 
spirit  and  intent  of  the  resolutions  than  he.     In  regard  to 
the  act  requested  he  had  very  serious  misgivings.     At  the 
time  of  his  consecration  it  had  been  the  purpose  of  the 
archbishop  to  consecrate  three  bishops  for  America,  in 
order  to  complete  the  canonical  number  necessary  for  the 
regular  consecration  of  future  bishops.     On  account  of  the 
absence  of  Dr.  Griffith  only  two  were  consecrated;  and 
Bishop  'white  felt  that   the  purpose  of  estabhshing  the 
canonical  number  in  the  English  succession  ought  to  be 
fulfilled  before  an  episcopal  consecration  could  be  ven- 
tured upon.     To  his  mind  that  purpose  implied  a  promise 
that  it  should  be  so.     Bishop   Provoost   considered   the 
promise  not  only  implied,  but  pledged.     Stoutly  opposed 
to  the  Scotch  succession,  he  had  no  hesitation  in  refusing 
the  Convention's  request.     But  White  was,  of  all  men, 
most  anxious  for  the  union  of  Seabury  with  the  church. 
He   was    fully   convinced   of   the   validity  of   his   orders, 
and  yet  he  could  not  seem  to  disregard  the  intention  of 
those  at  whose  hands  he  had  received  consecration.     The 
relations  of  the  Enghsh  bishops  to  the  nonjurors  were  most 
delicate.    They  could  not  legally  recognize  those  who  were 
proscribed  by  the  state.      He  did  not  wish,  therefore,  that 
they  should  be  asked  to  decide  the  question  started  by  the 
Convention.     Delicacy  forbade  its  being  brought  before 
them.     In  justice  to  them  no  consecration  ought  to  take 
place  until  three  bishops  in  the  Anglican  line  could  take 
part  in  it ;  otherwise  they  might  be  brought  into  politi- 
cal complications  at  home.     The  mind  of  the  committee, 
however,  had  been  fully  revealed,  and  the  way  laid  open 


374  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

for  union.  They  went  further  still.  They  enacted  a 
body  of  ten  canons/  which  showed  marked  respect  to  the 
Episcopal  office.  They  adopted  the  constitution,  with  such 
alterations  in  that  of  1786  as  allowed  (in  Section  II.)  a 
representation  of  a  church  by  clerical  members  only,  and 
(in  Section  III.)  provided  for  a  special  and  separate  House 
of  Bishops  when  there  should  be  three  of  that  order.  This 
was  to  exist  as  a  house  of  revision  for  acts  passed  in  the 
General  Convention,  and  its  non-concurrence  could  defeat 
legislation  unless  overcome  by  a  three-fifths  vote  of  the 
House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies.  This,  though  it 
seems  little  in  comparison  with  subsequent  legislation,  was 
a  distinct  advance  on  the  positions  of  the  past. 

The  Address  to  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  the 
English  Church,  asking  for  their  concurrence  in  the  pro- 
posed consecration  of  a  bishop  for  Massachusetts  and  New 
Hampshire  by  the  three  bishops,  contained  a  full  account 
of  all  the  letters  and  proceedings  connected  with  the 
request,  as  the  best  argument  for  granting  it,  and  it  was 
officially  signed  and  sent. 

Dr.  Griffith,  the  first  Bishop  elect  of  Virginia,  had  died 
a  few  days  after  the  assembling  of  the  Convention,  and 
his  funeral  had  been  attended  by  all  its  members.  Dr. 
WilHam  Smith,  as  was  inevitable,  preached  the  funeral 
sermon,  and  the  whole  proceeding  tended  to  subdue  and 
mollify  any  recalcitrant  feeling. 

Having  done  so  much,  by  resolutions  and  addresses,  by 
the  enactment  of  canons  and  the  establishment  of  a  con- 
stitution, the  Convention  determined  on  a  recess  to  see  if 
union  could  not  be  actually  and  at  once  accomplished.  A 
proper  committee  was  appointed  to  forward  the  address  to 
the  English  prelates,  to  send  the  necessary  answers  to  Dr. 

1  See  Appendix  C. 


SEABURY  CONSENTS    TO    THE    CONSTITUTION.     375 

Parker  and  the  Eastern  clergy,  to  answer  Dr.  Seabury's 
letters,  and  to  forward  to  him,  as  well  as  to  the  archbishops, 
the  minutes  of  the  Convention,  and  to  notify  him  and  the 
Eastern  clergy,  not  represented  in  the  Convention,  of  the 
time  and  place  of  its  adjournment,  and  to  invite  them  to 
attend  at  its  next  session.  The  Convention  then  adjourned, 
August  8th,  to  meet  September  29th,  requesting  Bishop 
Provoost,  who  had  hitherto  been  absent,  to  preach  the 
opening  sermon  at  the  coming  session. 

The  thirteen  days  of  the  session  had  caused  the  spirit  of 
union  to  grow  apace.  No  sooner  had  the  adjournment 
taken  place  than  both  the  committee  of  correspondence 
and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  personally  communicated  to 
Bishop  Seabury  what  had  been  done,  pointing  out  the 
special  features  of  legislation  intended  to  conciliate  him 
and  smooth  the  way  for  his  union  with  the  Convention, 
and  expressing  their  most  cordial  wishes  for  so  propitious 
a  result.  The  Bishop  of  Connecticut  could  no  longer 
hesitate.  He  had  not  gained  all  he  wanted,  nor  all  that 
he  thought  important  for  the  welfare  of  the  church;  but 
he  clearly  saw  in  the  disposition  manifested  by  what  had 
been  done  a  promise  of  better  things,  according  to  his 
notion,  in  the  future.  He  perceived,  with  the  New  Eng- 
land shrewdness  in  which  he  was  not  deficient,  that  the 
power  of  the  church  and  the  influence  of  its  bishops  would 
be  increased  a  hundredfold  by  such  a  union  as  was  now 
possible,  over  a  provincial  Scottish  New  England  hier- 
archy, with  the  real  successor  of  the  English  Church 
standing  as  a  rival  in  the  Middle  and  Southern  States. 
Ardent  Tory  as  he  was,  the  appeal  to  nationalism  at  last 
found  echo  in  his  mind  and  heart.  He  could  hope,  at  least, 
to  preserve  the  one  church  from  ecclesiastical  disin- 
tegration, with  which  he  feared  it  was  threatened  at  the 


376  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

South,  and  perchance,  after  his  death,  at  the  North ;  and 
he  could  try,  at  least,  to  mold  its  manners  and  amend  its 
speech. 

He  wrote  at  once  to  Bishop  White  on  receipt  of  the 
communication,  "  I  will,  God  permitting,  most  willingly 
join  you  at  your  adjourned  Convention  the  29th  of  Sep- 
tember." He  promised,  if  possible,  to  bring  a  couple  of 
clerical  deputies,  and  expressed  himself  cordially  to  both 
his  correspondents. 

Bishop  Provoost,  on  the  other  hand,  was  much  offended 
and  dismayed.  He  declared  that  the  New  York  dep- 
uties had  gone  contrary  to  their  instructions  in  favoring 
the  constitutional  provision  allowing  a  church  to  be  rep- 
resented by  clerical  deputies  only,  and  by  signing  the 
Address  to  the  English  prelates,  asking  sanction  for  allow- 
ing the  bishop  of  Scotch  consecration  to  act  as  the  third 
bishop  in  consecrating  Mr.  Bass.  He  declared  that  the 
absolution  of  the  archbishop  would  not  absolve  his  con- 
science, and  expressed  alarm  lest  the  constitution  of  the 
church  were  in  danger.  He  would  not  preach  before  the 
adjourned  Convention,  nor  even  attend  it. 

That  Convention  reassembled  Wednesday,  September 
30th.  Bishop  Seabury  was  on  hand  with  two  clerical 
delegates,  Abraham  Jarvis  and  Bela  Hubbard,  from 
Connecticut.  Dr.  Samuel  Parker  was  present  also,  as 
deputy  from  the  churches  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
Hampshire.  All  New  England  was  thus  represented.  The 
Convention  at  once  declared  that,  for  a  better  promotion 
of  a  union  of  this  church  with  the  Eastern  churches,  the 
general  constitution  was  still  open  to  amendment;  and  a 
committee  was  appointed  to  confer  with  the  deputies  of 
the  Eastern  churches  concerning  such  union.  As  a  re- 
sult, Section  HI.  of  the  constitution  was  so  amended  as  to 
give  the  House  of  Bishops  "  a  right  to  originate  and  pro- 


NEW  ENGLAND  JOINS   THE   CONVENTION.         377 

pose  "  acts  for  the  concurrence  of  the  House  of  Deputies, 
and  also  "  a  negative  on  the  acts  of  the  House  of  Deputies, 
unless  adhered  to  by  them  by  a  four-fifths  vote."  It  was 
also  resolved  to  advise  the  several  State  Conventions  that 
the  next  General  Convention  would  consider  the  propriety 
of  conferring  on  the  House  of  Bishops  a  full  veto  power 
over  the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Deputies.  This  oc- 
curred on  the  third  day  of  the  Convention  (October  2) ; 
and  on  the  same  day  the  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  with  the 
two  clerical  delegates  from  that  State,  together  with  the 
clerical  delegate  from  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire, 
signed  the  following  statement:  "We  do  hereby  agree  to 
the  constitution  of  the  church,  as  modified  this  day  in  Con- 
vention." This  act  occurred  in  the  State-house,  where 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  had  been  previously 
signed  ;  the  Convention  having  the  day  before  removed  its 
sitting  from  Christ  Church  to  that  place  with  the  permis- 
sion of  the  president  of  the  State. 

Thus,  by  the  ordering  of  Providence,  out  from  the  walls 
already  consecrated  to  political  liberty  and  union  there 
came  forth  a  national  church  committed  to  conserve  re- 
ligious liberty  by  its  union,  and  engaged  to  discard  and 
disown  the  perpetuation  and  incorporation  of  separate  ec- 
clesiastical cliques,  set  to  emphasize  disagreement  and  to 
stir  up  strife.  The  whole  history  of  the  proceedings  which 
led  up  to  this  happy  consummation  indicates  the  nature  of 
the  ecclesiastical  organization  to  which  our  fathers  set  their 
seal.  Its  realization  would  have  been  impossible  without 
the  submerging  of  mutual  differences  and  the  recognition 
of  mutual  rights.  Theirs  was  in  its  true  sense  the  church 
idea  of  unity  regnant  amid  diversity,  in  contradistinction 
to  the  sect  idea  of  unity  submerged  in  diversity.  This 
idea  it  guarded  in  its  constitution  and  guaranteed  to  all 
who  accepted  its  fundamental  features.    Within  the  realm 


378  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

of  its  law  no  proscription  of  parties  is  valid  while  those 
parties  recognize  its  law.  The  divergent  tendencies  exist- 
ent in  those  who  framed  the  ecclesiastical  body  have  often 
since  been  developed  in  extreme  antagonism  ;  but  no  right 
of  excision  of  one  party  by  another  is  recognized  by  the 
constitution  which  binds  them  both  together.  Loyalty  is 
not  measured  by  opinions,  nor  dependent  upon  theories. 
Ecclesiastical  and  theological  variations  are  legally  permis- 
sible so  long  as  the  creeds  and  the  constitution  are  not  con- 
tradicted. Liberty  and  union  are  the  watchwords  of  the 
church  as  well  as  of  the  State. 

The  day  after  the  accession  of  New  England  to  the 
church  the  Convention  met  in  two  houses,  the  House  of 
Bishops  and  the  House  of  Deputies.  Three  bishops  now 
existed,  and  the  absence  of  one  of  them  was  not  held 
to  obviate  the  right  of  the  other  two  to  meet  apart  from 
the  Lower  House.  On  Monday,  the  5th  of  October,  1789, 
the  House  of  Bishops  held  its  first  session  in  the  com- 
mittee-room of  the  House  of  Assembly.  The  rule  pre- 
pared by  Bishop  White  was  adopted,  that  the  bishop  first 
consecrated  should  preside;  and  Bishop  Seabury  was  in 
consequence  the  chairman  of  the  House  of  two.  There, 
then,  the  two,  who  met  for  the  first  time  in  this  Conven- 
tion, sat  together  at  last  to  consult  and  to  contemplate 
each  other,  the  ecclesiastical  anatomist  confronting  the 
ecclesiastical  physiologist ;  one  insistent  on  the  accuracy 
and  integrity  of  the  frame,  the  other  intent  on  adjusting 
tissue,  muscle,  nerve,  and  sinew  to  the  national  environ- 
ment; each  bent  on  securing  certain  functions  deemed 
indispensable  for  the  body,  each  willing,  if  it  must  be,  to 
yield  preferences  which  were  yet  dispensable.  From  con- 
victions and  conceptions  so  different,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  genuine  goodness  and  courtesy  of  both,  there  could 
only  have  issued  contention  and  strife.     As  it  proved,  the 


THE  PRAYER-BOOK. 


379 


peace  and  permanence  which  followed  were  quite  as  much 
the  result  of  moral  earnestness  and  spiritual  devotion  as  of 
polemic  argument  or  ecclesiastical  assertion.^ 

The  chief  business  of  both  houses  was  now  the  final 
preparation  of  a  Prayer-book.  No  effort  for  the  accept- 
ance of  the  "  Proposed  Book  "  was  made.  Dr.  Parker,  of 
Massachusetts,  representing  as  he  did  the  general  sen- 
timent at  the  North,  though  one  of  the  few  who  had 
largely  used  the  "  Proposed  Book,"  urged  that  the  Eng- 
lish Prayer-book  should  be  made  the  ground  of  the  pro- 
ceedings, without  any  reference  to  the  book  tentatively 
set  forth  in  1785.  This  course  was  not  formally  adopted, 
the  resolutions  being  so  worded  as  to  imply  that  there  was 
no  book  of  authority  in  existence.  This  Bishop  White 
deemed  discourteous  to  the  "Proposed  Book,"  which  had 
been  recommended,  and  in  one  service  used,  by  a  previ- 
ous Convention ;  and  dangerous,  as  it  involved  liberty  for 
a  complete  and  independent  construction  of  a  liturgy,  in- 
stead of  the  alteration  of  one  already  existent.  It  also 
changed  the  force  of  a  negative  of  the  bishops  to  any 
proposed  office.  For  the  veto  of  a  wholly  new  ofifice 
involved  the  exclusion  of  any  office  for  that  occasion; 
whereas  the  veto  of  a  proposed  alteration  of  an  existing 
office  would  simply  have  the  force  of  retaining  the  office 
in  its  original  form.  All  danger  was  averted  by  the  gen- 
eral disposition  of  the  committee  to  depart  as  little  as  pos- 
sible from  the  English  Prayer-book,  though  theoretically 
they  proceeded  to  make  a  book,  not  to  alter  one. 

The  preparation  of  a  Prayer-book  was  assigned  to  five 
committees :  one  on  the  Calendar  and  Tables  of  Lessons, 

1  Outside  the  Convention  there  was  a  threatened  disturbance  of  the  har- 
mony within  from  the  objections  of  some  deputies  to  Bishop  Seabury  as  the 
recipient  of  a  pension  as  former  chaplain  in  the  British  army.  Bishop  White 
quieted  the  matter  by  showing  that  it  involved  no  civil  disability,  and  should 
not,  therefore,  prove  an  ecclesiastical  obstacle. 


380  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

with  the  Collects,  Epistles,  aad  Gospels ;  another  on  the 
Morning  and  Evening  Service ;  a  third  on  the  Litany  and 
Occasional  Prayers  and  Thanksgivings ;  a  fourth  on  the 
Order  for  the  Administration  of  the  Holy  Communion ; 
and  a  fifth  to  report  in  what  manner  the  Psalms  should 
be  used.  The  reports  of  each  committee,  when  adopted, 
were  transmitted  to  the  House  of  Bishops,  from  whence 
they  were  returned  with  amendments.  From  the  bishops 
were  received,  in  the  first  instance,  thfe  various  special 
offices  to  be  adopted  for  use  in  the  American  church. 
The  alterations,  other  than  those  of  a  political  nature,  were 
mainly  verbal,  together  with  the  omission  of  repetitions; 
the  addition  of  Selections  of  Psalms,  to  be  used  at  the 
discretion  of  the  minister;  an  Office  for  the  Visitation  of 
Prisoners,  from  the  Irish  Prayer-book ;  a  service  of  Prayer 
and  Thanksgiving  for  the  Fruits  of  the  Earth,  from  the 
"  Proposed  Book  "  ;  and  an  Order  of  Family  Prayer.  Be- 
sides these,  Bishop  Seabury  secured  in  the  Order  for  the 
administration  of  the  Holy  Communion  the  restoration 
to  the  Consecration  Prayer  of  the  Oblation  and  Invoca- 
tion found  in  King  Edward  VI. 's  First  Prayer-book,  and 
retained  essentially  in  the  Scotch  office. 

The  deliberations  were  conducted  with  great  harmony ; 
and  the  result  was  the  setting  forth  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  to  be  in  use  from  the  1st  of  October,  1790; 
which  book  was  in  use,  with  certain  subsequent  additions 
to  its  offices,  until  displaced  by  the  revision  which  was 
brought  to  a  close  by  the  ratification  of  the  Convention 
of  1892.  The  adoption  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  Re- 
ligion, though  proposed  by  the  bishops,  was  referred  to 
the  consideration  of  a  subsequent  Convention,  and  they 
were  not  established  until  1801.  The  Athanasian  Creed 
was  rejected  altogether  by  the  House  of  Deputies,  though 
Bishop  White,  who  disliked  it,  and  avowed  his  purpose 


OMITTED   RUBRICS.  38  I 

never  to  read  it,  was  willing  to  concede  to  the  Bishop  and 
clergy  of  Connecticut  the  right  to  print  it  in  the  Prayer- 
book,  with  a  rubric  permissive  of  its  use.  The  Lower 
House  would  not  have  it  in  any  shape. 

A  number  of  rubrics  of  the  English  Prayer-book  were 
omitted,  not  as  impugning  their  propriety  for  England,  but 
as  indicating  that  they  cease  to  have  the  force  of  law  for 
America.^  The  two  most  conspicuous  instances  of  these 
omissions  are  the  celebrated  Ornaments  Rubric,  which  was 
then  obsolete  or  obsolescent  in  the  English  Church,  and 
the  so-called  Black  Rubric,  concerning  the  adoration  of 
the  elements,  at  the  end  of  the  Communion  Office.  Too 
great  reverence  for  the  sacraments,  or  too  frequent  use  of 
the  service,  were  not  the  dangers  prevalent  in  America  at 
that  time ;  and  no  one  then  dreamed  of  the  restoration  of 
vestments  and  ornaments  which  has  since  been  made  by 
the  modern  construction  of  the  Ornaments  Rubric.  The 
happy  deliverance  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America 
from  dependence  on  the  decisions  of  English  ecclesiastical 
courts  in  such  matters  was  achieved  by  a  simple  omission 
of  the  rubric  from  the  formularies.  These  omissions,  and 
other  special  features  of  the  Prayer-book  as  now  adopted, 

1  Hon.  Murray  Hoffman,  in  "  The  Ritual  Law  of  the  Church,"  p.  135, 
takes  this  position  in  regard  to  the  Ornaments  Rubric:  "  But  our  church  in 
1789  omitted  this  rubric.  Nothing  can  be  more  clear  than  that  such  omis- 
sion was  equivalent  to  a  declaration  that  it  should  not  constitute  part  of  our 
law." 

The  only  rules  concerning  clerical  vestments  adopted  by  this  first  or  any 
other  General  Convention  are  included  in  the  rubrics  in  the  Form  of  Ordain- 
ing or  Consecrating  a  Bishop,  and  those  of  Making  Deacons  and  Ordering 
Priests.  In  regard  to  the  bishop,  the  rochet  is  prescribed,  and  then  the  rest 
of  the  episcopal  habit,  referring  to  the  costume  universally  prevalent  then  in 
the  Anglican  communion.  In  regard  to  candidates  for  the  diaconate  or  priest- 
hood, it  is  simply  said,  "  Each  of  them  being  decently  habited."  This  is  a 
phrase  which  is  capable  of  wide  construction,  but  in  its  time  and  place  it  re- 
ferred apparently  to  the  surplice  or  gown  and  bands,  then  the  universal  vest- 
ments of  the  clergy,  and  which  were  referred  to  as  the  proper  ecclesiastical 
apparel  of  officiating  clergymen  by  the  House  of  Bishops  in  18 14.  (See 
"  Half-century  of  Legislation,"  vol.  i.,  p.  431.) 


382  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

show  clearly  that  the  changes  involved  were  not  consid- 
ered to  be  inconsistent  with  the  declaration,  in  the  admi- 
rable preface,^  that  "  this  church  is  far  from  intending  to 
depart  from  the  Church  of  England  in  any  essential  point 
of  doctrine,  discipline,  or  worship,  or  further  than  what 
circumstances  require"  ;  they  are  merely  special  instances 
of  the  exercise  of  the  right  claimed,  in  the  same  preface, 
"  to  establish  such  other  alterations  and  amendments  therein 
as  might  be  deemed  proper." 

This  same  sentiment  appeared  later,  when,  in  the  Con- 
vention of  1 8 14,  the  identity  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  with  the  Church  of  England  was  declared,  in  which 
declaration  it  is  said :  "  The  church  conceives  herself  as 
professing  and  acting  on  the  principles  of  the  Church  of 
England;  .  .  .  but  it  would  be  contrary  to  fact  were  any 
one  to  infer  that  the  discipline  exercised  in  this  church,  or 
that  any  proceedings  therein,  are  at  all  dependent  on  the 
will  of  the  civil  or  ecclesiastical  authority  of  any  foreign 
country."  The  Convention  thus  felt  amply  competent,  in 
restoring  to  the  Apostles'  Creed  the  clause  concerning  the 
descent  into  hell,  to  prefix  the  rubric  allowing  the  omis- 
sion of  its  use,  or  the  substitution  for  it  of  the  phrase  "  he 
went  into  the  place  of  departed  spirits."  The  changes 
introduced  show  that  the  identity  with  the  mother-church 
to  be  maintained  must  consist  in  oneness  of  spirit  rather 
than  in  exact  conformity  to  the  letter.  They  are  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  meaning  of  the  preface,  and  illustrations  of 
what  its  declarations  may  involve. 

Besides  the  changes  of  discipline  already  indicated,  the 
Convention  acted  in  regard  to  hymnody  and  other  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  the  liturgy.  The  Psalms  in  meter,  and 
twenty-seven  hymns,  the  foundation  of  later  hymnals,  were 

1  This  preface  is  essentially  that  of  the  "  Proposed  Book,"  and  was  written 
by  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  of  Maryland. 


THE    COMMUNION  OFFICE.  383 

set  forth ;  the  canons  were  increased  by  the  enactment  of 
eight,  requiring  the  exclusive  use  of  the  Prayer-book  as 
established,  stating  the  duty  of  the  clergy  in  regard  to  epis- 
copal visitations,  directing  the  censure  of  notorious  crimes 
and  scandals,  enforcing  the  sober  conversation  required  in 
ministers,  providing  for  the  due  celebration  of  Sundays, 
the  preparation  of  a  regular  list  of  the  clergymen  of  the 
church,  and  giving  notice  of  the  induction  and  dismission 
of  incumbents.i 

By  far  the  most  influential  and  significant  change  in  the 
Prayer-book  was  by  way  of  addition.  It  occurred  in  the 
most  sacred  office  of  all,  the  Order  for  the  Administration 
of  the  Holy  Communion,  and  was  the  work  of  Bishop 
Seabury,  being  the  result  of  his  concordat  with  the  Scotch 
bishops,  his  consecrators.  It  consisted  in  placing  the  words 
of  Oblation  and  Invocation  immediately  after  the  words  of 
Institution,  giving  a  completeness  to  the  office  which  not 
only  adds  greatly  to  its  solemnity  and  beauty,  but  also 
gives  clearness  to  the  doctrine  embodied  in  it.  The  Invo- 
cation comes  after  the  Oblation,  and  clearly  discriminates 

1  One  or  two  minor  changes  in  the  service  are  indicative  of  special  and 
local  consideration.  The  Litany  is  appointed  to  be  read  after  the  Prayer  for 
the  President.  This  is  said  to  have  been  the  act  of  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith, 
to  whom  the  preparation  of  the  book  was  intrusted.  The  reason  given  was 
that  President  Washington  never  attended  church  of  an  afternoon,  and  so 
would  never  hear  the  prayer  if  the  Litany  came  in  before  it.  Another  reason 
may  have  well  suggested  the  unauthorized  change,  the  fact  being  that,  unlike 
the  English  service,  there  is  no  sufTrage  for  the  President  in  the  American 
Litany,  and  no  prayers  for  rulers  in  the  "Antecomniunion  Office,"  save  in 
the  Prayer  for  the  Church  Militant,  not  always  used.  To  secure  constant 
]5rayer  for  the  President  the  collect  must  invariably  form  part  of  the  Order  of 
Morning  Prayer. 

The  rubric  allowing  the  use  of  the  "  Antecommunion  Office  "  ' '  where  Morn- 
ing and  Evening  Prayer  are  appointed  to  be  said,"  as  well  as  "at  the  right 
side  of  the  Table,"  is  said  to  have  been  put  in  for  the  accommodation  of  Bisho]~> 
White,  the  chancel  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  where  he  officiated,  being  at  the 
east  end  of  the  church,  while  the  reading-desk  and  pul]3it  are  at  the  west  end. 
To  be  saved  the  conspicuous  walk  along  the  broad  aisle  would  be  consonant 
with  the  shyness  and  modesty  of  Bishop  White,  and  so  the  rubric  was  made 
to  read  as  at  present. 


384  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiii. 

the  effect  of  consecration  from  transubstantiation,  by  call- 
ing the  elements  already  consecrated  and  offered  "  thy 
creatures  of  bread  and  wine,"  and  supplicating  the  aid  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  that  the  partaking  of  the  outward  sign 
may  be  effectual  to  the  reception  of  the  inward  reality  sig- 
nified. It  is  by  word  and  act  the  practical  realization  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  Catechism  and  the  Articles  that  "  the 
Body  of  Christ  is  given,  taken,  and  eaten  in  the  Supper 
only  after  an  heavenly  and  spiritual  manner." 

The  Convention  of  1789  adjourned  on  the  i6th  of  Octo- 
ber, after  appointing  a  standing  committee  authorized  to 
recommend  to  the  bishops  the  calling  of  special  meetings 
of  the  Convention,  if  necessary,  and  recording  their  opinion 
that  the  bishops  have  a  right  to  call  special  Conventions 
when  they  think  proper. 

The  adjournment  thus  found  the  church  fully  organized. 
The  Convention  in  both  houses  had  established  its  con- 
stitution, canons,  and  liturgy.  It  had  not  undertaken  to 
create  the  functions  of  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon,  but  it 
had  undertaken  to  regulate  the  exercise  of  those  functions 
according  to  established  law.  Thus  the  church  took  the 
form  of  a  consdtutional,  not  merely  of  a  traditional  body. 
The  powers  of  all  the  orders  within  it  were  guaranteed  and 
limited  by  express  enactment.  In  its  creeds  and  ministry 
it  stood  catholic  and  primitive.  As  an  American  eccle- 
siastical organization  it  established  its  own  constitution 
and  canons.^ 

1  Hoffman,  "  The  Ritual  Law  of  the  Church,"  pp.  379,  380. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

A    PERIOD    OF    SUSPENDED    ANIMATION    AND    FEEBLE 
GROWTH    (l  789-18  II). 

The  history  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  after 
its  complete  organization  in  1789  falls  naturally  into  four 
periods.  The  first,  extending"  from  1789  to  181 1,  may  not 
inaptly  be  styled  "A  Period  of  Suspended  Animation"; 
the  second,  from  181 1  to  1836,  "A  Period  of  Aroused 
Self-consciousness  and  Aggression  "  ;  the  third,  from  1836 
to  1865,  "A  Period  of  Internal  Conflict,"  arising  from 
vigorous  life  and  mutual  misconception ;  the  fourth,  from 
1865  to  1895,  "A  Period  of  Positive  Advance,"  founded 
on  mutual  recognition. 

The  first  period,  from  1789  to  1811,  which  we  have  en- 
titled "A  Period  of  Suspended  Animation,"  was  not  with- 
out its  marked  features,  nor  was  it  altogether  devoid  of  im- 
portant action.  The  bishops  and  deputies,  clerical  and  lay, 
did  not  return  to  their  homes  from  Philadelphia  simply  to 
congratulate  themselves  that  a  church  had  been  organized. 
But  the  temper  of  the  time  and  the  profound  difficulty  of 
adapting  new  institutions  to  the  crude  conditions  of  a  new 
nation  were  shared  alike  by  church  and  state.  The  political 
atmosphere  was  charged  with  political  passion.  The  ad- 
ministrations of  Washington  and  Adams  and  Jefferson 
were  rife  with  personal  acrimony  and  turbulent  partisan- 
ship. Even  the  Presidents  and  their  associated  counselors 
did  not  escape  the  shafts  of  malice  and  detraction.     It  was 

385 


386  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap,  xiv, 

the  "  storm  and  stress  "  period  of  a  young  nation  which 
did  not  understand  how  to  adapt  its  inherent  forces  to  its 
new  possession  of  authority,  and  whose  inexperience  and 
unregulated  enthusiasm  deprived  it  of  the  calmness  and 
sobriety  which  are  the  issue  of  established  character  and 
recognized  achievement.  An  intense  and  unusual  interest 
in  politics  absorbed  the  public  mind.  The  church  was  re- 
manded far  back  into  the  shadow.  The  spirit  of  irreligion 
and  infidelity,  moreover,  was  widespread,  a  not  unnatural 
result  of  eight  years  of  war  and  of  the  incoming  of  conti- 
nental influences.  Paine  represented  the  vulgar,  and  Jefi"er- 
son  the  philosophical  skepticism.  All  ranks  of  life  felt  the 
benumbing  influence.  To  hold  its  own  was  in  itself  an 
achievement  for  the  church. 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  notwithstanding  its 
new  name  and  constitution,  was  popularly  regarded  as  an 
English  institution,  and  distrusted  or  hated  accordingly. 
Anti-British  feeling,  deepened  by  the  unpopular  Jay  treaty, 
and  culminating  in  the  War  of  1812,  pervaded  the  ecclesi- 
astical as  well  as  the  political  world.  The  church's  salient 
features,  of  a  graded  ministry  with  a  sort  of  kingly  officer 
in  its  bishop  ;  a  vested  clergy,  indicative  of  an  aristocracy  ; 
and  a  liturgical  worship,  suggesting  a  court  ceremonial,  and 
not  to  be  distinguished  by  the  common  mind  from  formal 
devotion — all  these  apparent  features  made  a  far  deeper 
impression  than  the  fact  of  lay  representation  in  a  trien- 
nial Convention,  or  the  restriction  of  bishops  to  spiritual 
jurisdiction.  The  church,  in  fine,  was  misunderstood  in 
its  temper  and  spirit ;  and  had  it  been  at  that  time  under- 
stood, it  would  not  have  been  better  liked.  The  religious 
sentiment  of  the  day  demanded  more  fervor  of  personal 
expression  in  worship,  more  definite  and  insistent  state- 
ment in  doctrine  concerning  religious  experience  and  meta- 
physical theology,  more  direct  and  intrusive  personal  dis- 


FAULTS   OF   THE    CHURCH.  387 

cipline  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  communicants,  than 
the  Episcopal  Church  offered.  The  prevaiHng  rehgious 
temper  was  largely  subjective.  The  liturgical  tone  of  the 
church  was  largely  objective.  The  very  features  which 
constitute  its  abiding  value  and  influence  tended  in  this 
period  to  depreciate  both. 

And  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  church  was  only  mis- 
understood. Its  own  faults,  as  well  as  popular  misappre- 
hension, hindered  its  advance.  It  was  nowhere  a  type  of 
vigorous  earnestness  or  aggressive  spirituality.  It  was  de- 
fending its  right  to  be  by  its  antecedents,  instead  of  prov- 
ing its  right  to  be  by  its  apostolic  fervor  and  practical 
achievements.  It  stood  by  its  guns,  but  it  did  not  train 
them  eflectively  on  the  enemies  of  ungodliness  and  unbe- 
lief. The  energy  which  had  brought  the  child  to  the  birth 
seemed  unequal  to  its  nurture  and  training.  The  church's 
course  for  a  long  period  was  marked  with  all  the  obstinacy 
of  a  weak  mind  and  a  strong  constitution.  The  preacliing 
of  the  clergy  was  ethical  rather  than  spiritual.  The  de- 
parture of  the  Methodists  at  the  South  had  left  the  church 
there  in  a  sort  of  respectable  torpor ;  and  the  Congregation- 
alists  and  Presbyterians  of  the  Western  and  Middle  States 
stood  aloof  on  both  patriotic  and  ecclesiastical  grounds. 
No  summons  to  the  church  was  likely  to  be  listened  to 
which,  like  that  of  the  loyalist  Bishop  Seabury  to  the 
patriotic  Congregationalists  of  Connecticut,  called  on  them 
to  "  relinquish  the  errors  their  fathers  had  through  preju- 
dice most  unhappily  imbibed." 

The  records  of  the  General  Conventions  of  this  period 
show  the  paucity  of  growth  by  the  slender  representation 
of  the  churches.  The  two  bishops  and  twenty  clergy- 
men and  sixteen  laymen  of  the  Convention  of  1789. are 
augmented  by  only  five  clergymen  and  four  laymen  in  the 
Convention  of  181 1,  a  period  of  twenty-one  years.     The 


388  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

number  of  bishops  had  been  increased  from  time  to  time, 
but  their  attendance  had  only  once  been  as  large  as  five ; 
and  the  clerical  representatives  up  to  1811  had  but  once 
numbered  twenty,  while  the  lay  delegates  had  rarely  ex- 
ceeded half  a  score.  An  epidemic  had  cut  ofif  the  repre- 
sentatives of  New  England  from  the  Convention  of  i795- 
The  same  cause  prevented  a  meeting  of  Convention  in 
1  798,  and  reduced  the  attendance  at  the  special  Conven- 
tion of  I  799.  In  fact,  the  General  Convention,  which  it 
had  cost  so  much  to  constitute  and  inaugurate,  lagged 
from  lack  of  interest,  begotten  of  the  debilitated  condition 
of  the  churches  in  the  several  States. 

That  condition  was  in  many  regions  deplorable,  espe- 
cially so  at  the  South,  where  the  church  had  once  been 
supreme.  In  May,  1 790,  Virginia  elected  Rev.  James 
Madison,  D.D.,  president  of  the  College  of  William  and 
Mary,  bishop  of  the  church  in  that  State;  and  he  went 
to  England,  where  he  was  consecrated,  September  19, 
I  790,  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishops 
of  London  and  Rochester.  He  was  a  most  creditable 
representative  of  the  church,  a  man  of  fine  character,  a 
good  scholar,  an  eloquent  preacher,  and  a  gentleman  of 
the  colonial  type.  But  he  fell  upon  times  difficult  and 
dispiriting,  and  his  collegiate  duties  distracted  his  attention 
from  his  diocese.  He  returned  from  England  immedi- 
ately after  his  consecration,  and  at  once  entered  earnestly 
on  the  duties  of  his  bishopric,  giving,  in  his  first  charge  to 
his  clergy,  an  ardent  exhortation  to  devotion  and  righteous- 
ness of  life,  and  tracing  much  of  the  misfortune  which  had 
befallen  the  church  to  the  lack  of  fervent  Christian  zeal 
in  its  ministry.  He  had  a  broader  mind  in  regard  to 
church  comprehension  than  almost  any  man  of  his  day.  He 
proposed,  in  the  General  Convention  of  1792,  a  plan  for 
comprehending   the    Methodists    within    the    fold,    which 


CHURCH  DECLINE  IN  VIRGINIA.  389 

the  bishops  agreed  to,  but  which  the  Lower  House  re- 
jected as  disorganizing.  In  his  own  diocese  he  had  seen 
the  spiritual  depletion  of  the  church  following  the  depar- 
ture of  the  Methodists  from  it ;  and,  marking  the  low  ebb 
of  religion  everywhere,  he  longed  for  the  union  of  all  be- 
lievers as  a  means  of  resisting  and  overcoming  the  indiffer- 
ence and  ungodliness  of  the  times.  In  his  own  Diocesan 
Convention  of  i  793  he  referred  to  his  rejected  scheme  with 
regret,  and  spoke  of  union  and  comprehension  quite  in  the 
modern  spirit  of  the  Chicago  Convention  and  the  Lambeth 
Conference.  His  counsels  and  his  labors,  though  aided  by 
many  earnest  clergy  and  faithful  laity,  were  not  generally 
effective.  The  spoliation  of  the  church  by  the  selling  of 
the  glebes  for  the  benefit  of  the  State  was  accomplished  in 
1802,  and  seemed  to  take  all  heart  out  of  the  communion. 
The  clergy  were  impoverished.  Church  buildings  and 
communion-plate  and  baptismal  fonts  met,  though  with- 
out legal  warrant,  the  fate  of  the  glebes.  The  ministry 
diminished  in  number,  services  ceased  to  be  held,  and  the 
old  church  lost  her  hold  on  her  children.  The  lethargy 
of  despair  ensued.  The  bishop  himself,  noble  man  that 
he  was,  lost  heart.  He  busied  himself  with  his  college 
duties,  and  gradually  discontinued  the  visitation  of  his 
diocese.  From  1 805  to  181 2  no  Convention  was  held  in 
Virginia.  When  the  parishes  became  vacant  they  re- 
mained so  for  lack  of  clergy.  Only  one  ordination,  and 
that  an  unworthy  one,  had  taken  place  in  many  years. 
Chief-Justice  Marshall,  a  devout  churchman,  thought  the 
church  too  far  gone  ever  to  be  revived  ;  and  when  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Meade  offered  himself  at  Williamsburg  in  181 1  for 
ordination,  universal  surprise  was  expressed  that  a  gentle- 
man, college  bred,  should  apply  for  orders.  A  party  of 
family  relatives,  consisting  of  two  ladies  and  fifteen  gen- 
tlemen, formed  the  entire  congregation  at  the  ordination 


390  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

service.  The  students,  with  dogs  and  guns,  passed  the 
dilapidated  church  scornfully  by,  bent  on  the  chase,  hav- 
ing recently  debated  the  questions  "  whether  there  be  a 
God,"  and  "  whether  Christianity  had  been  injurious  or 
beneficial  to  mankind."  When,  after  Bishop  Madison's 
death  in  1812,  a  special  Convention  was  assembled  in  18 13 
to  elect  a  successor,  only  seven  clergy  and  eighteen  lay- 
men, representative  of  fourteen  parishes,  could  be  gathered 
together. 

Virginia  was  the  most  flagrant  illustration  of  church  de- 
cline ;  but  other  regions  of  the  South  were  not  much  more 
hopeful.  In  Maryland  and  Delaware  nearly  half  the  par- 
ishes were  vacant.  A  spirit  of  indifference  to  religion  was 
everywhere  manifest.  Never  were  ministers  more  needed  ; 
never  were  they  more  difficult  to  obtain.  There  were  no 
seminaries  to  educate  them  ;  and  clerical  support  in  par- 
ishes, when  it  existed  at  all,  was  most  meager. 

Maryland  in  1 792  elected  a  bishop  in  the  person  of  Rev. 
Dr.  T.  J.  Claggett ;  and  the  deputies  from  that  State  re- 
quested his  consecration  from  the  whole  House  of  Bishops. 
It  was  accorded ;  and  there  being  the  canonical  number  of 
three  bishops  of  the  English  succession,  Bishop  Provoost 
(who,  as  presiding  bishop  that  year,  was  consecrator)  did 
not  press  an  objection  to  Bishop  Seabury's  making  a  fourth, 
though  the  latter  suspected  that  he  would,  and  warned 
Bishop  White  of  the  consequences  if  he  did.  These  were 
to  be  nothing  less  than  the  secession  of  New  England  from 
the  Convention.  Personally  Bishops  Provoost  and  Sea- 
bury  had  met  and  become  acquainted  at  the  meeting  of 
the  Convention  in  New  York,  the  Bishop  of  Connecticut 
making  the  first  advances  by  calling  on  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese  in  which  the  Convention  was  assembled.  There  was 
social  politeness,  but  no  ecclesiastical  cordiality.  The  ser- 
vice of  consecration,  however,  took  place  in  Trinity  Church, 


THE    CHURCH  IN   THE   SOUTH.  39 1 

New  York,  September  12,  1792,  all  the  bishops  joining  in 
the  imposition  of  hands,  and  thus  completing  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  Scotch  consecration,  and  joining  the  orders  so 
obtained  to  all  subsequent  American  ordinations. 

This  fifth  bishop  in  the  United  States,  and  first  of  Mary- 
land, could  not  accomplish  much  in  his  diocese.  He  was 
laborious  and  earnest  both  as  a  diocesan  and  a  rector, 
which  two  offices  he  held  together ;  and  he  was  born  and 
bred  in  Maryland,  and  thoroughly  understood  the  situation, 
but  the  crudities  of  the  time  and  place  were  not  to  be 
conquered  in  one  episcopate.  Later,  indeed,  violent  dis- 
sensions broke  out,  after  Bishop  Claggett  had  gone  to  his 
rest. 

In  North  Carolina,  farther  south,  efforts  were  made,  at 
the  suggestion  of  Bishop  White,  to  organize  the  church  as 
early  as  i  790 ;  but  no  Conv^ention  was  held  in  the  State 
until  late  in  1793,  when  three  clergymen  and  three  laymen 
met  together  at  Tawborough.  The  state  of  the  church  was 
represented  by  them  as  "  truly  deplorable,  from  the  paucity 
of  the  clergy  and  the  multiplicity  of  opposing  sectarians." 
The  next  year  (1794)  a  constitution  was  prepared  and  a 
bishop  elected,  namely,  the  Rev.  Charles  Pettigrew,  who 
was  never  consecrated.  On  his  way  to  the  General  Con- 
vention of  I  795  he  was  stopped  by  an  epidemic  fever  in 
Norfolk,  and,  returning  home,  shortly  after  died.  The  re- 
vival of  the  church  in  North  Carolina  was,  in  consequence, 
long  deferred,  and  not  until  181  7  were  the  foundations  laid 
for  its  restoration. 

South  Carolina  was  more  fortunate  in  regard  to  an  early 
episcopate,  as  she  had  been  in  the  earlier  colonial  church 
settlement.  The  diocese,  as  we  have  seen,  had  entered 
into  alliance  with  the  General  Convention  on  the  condition 
that  no  bishop  was  to  be  established  in  that  State.  In  1 795 
the  very  same  clergyman.  Rev.  Robert  Smith,  D.D.,  who 


392  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

had  offered  that  motion,  in  order  to  gain  at  all  hazards 
adhesion  to  the  National  Movement,  was  elected  Bishop 
of  South  Carolina,  and  was  consecrated  in  Christ  Church, 
Philadelphia,  September  i8th  of  the  same  year.  He  un- 
doubtedly kept  the  church  alive  and  together;  but  he  was 
then  sixty-five  years  of  age,  and  could  not  push  matters 
rapidly  in  so  distrustful  a  church  community.  He  is  said 
never  to  have  administered  the  rite  of  confirmation;  and 
certainly  no  Conventions  were  held  in  the  State  from  1 798 
until  1804.  In  the  meantime  Bishop  Smith  had  died  in 
1 80 1.  A  successor  was  unanimously  elected  in  1804,  the 
Rev.  Edward  Jenkins,  D.D.,  but  he  declined  the  honor; 
and  until  18 12  the  bishopric  remained  vacant. 

Georgia  made  no  sign  at  this  period.  Even  in  181 1, 
when  Rev.  Mr.  Burton  presented  to  the  General  Conven- 
tion a  certificate  of  his  appointment  as  deputy  by  the 
wardens  and  vestry  of  the  Episcopal  church  in  Savannah, 
the  house  was  compelled  to  decline  admitting  him,  because 
the  church  was  not  organized  in  the  State,  and  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  had  not  been  ac- 
ceded to.  Georgia  was  not  visited  by  a  bishop  until  1816, 
when  Bishop  Dehon,  of  South  Carolina,  went  to  Savannah 
to  confirm,  this  being  the  first  confirmation  e\'er  held  in 
the  State. 

In  the  Northern  and  Middle  States  ecclesiastical  affairs 
were  in  better  condition,  but  they  were  nowhere  flourish- 
ing. In  Delaware  all  was  very  dead.  The  church  held 
its  first  Diocesan  Convention  in  1791,  but  failed  to  elect  its 
most  distinguished  presbyter,  Dr.  Wharton,  to  the  episco- 
pate. The  diocese  was  only  served  at  long  intervals  with 
episcopal  ministrations  by  Bishop  White  and  Bishop  Clag- 
gett.  There  was  no  bishop  in  Delaware  before  1841, 
until  which  time  it  was  under  the  care  of  the  Bishop  of 
Pennsvh'ania. 


THE    CHURCH  IN   THE  MIDDLE   STATES.  393 

The  church  in  Pennsylvania  at  this  period  was  mostly 
the  church  in  Philadelphia,  and  this  was  flourishing.  The 
character  and  station  of  Bishop  White,  and  the  dignified 
edifices  of  Christ  Church  parish,  caused  it  to  command  re- 
spect and  influence.  It  was  not  popular  with  the  middle 
and  lower  classes.  It  was  rather  the  church  of  the  aristoc- 
racy. The  attendance  on  its  worship  of  President  Wash- 
ington and  many  distinguished  members  of  the  Continental 
Congress  gave  it  prestige.  This,  however,  did  not  bring 
it  into  touch  with  the  people.  It  kept  the  appearance  of  a 
church  for  a  special  class,  and  its  regulated  worship  and 
unenthusiastic  preaching  removed  it  far  from  the  popular 
sympathy.  But  Philadelphia  was  the  chief  city  of  the 
country,  and  the  church  in  Philadelphia  represented  a  most 
dignified  and  influential  portion  of  the  community. 

In  New  York,  in  spite  of  the  wealth  and  prestige  of  Trinit}^ 
parish,  there  was  little  ardor  of  church  life.  The  scars  of 
the  Revolution  had  gone  too  deep.  The  bishop  had  been 
elected  as  a  patriot,  and  his  national  ardor  far  outran  his 
ecclesiastical  zeal.  He  thought  that  tolerance  to  his  com- 
munion was  all  that  could  be  expected  in  view  of  its  politi- 
cal history,  and  tolerance  was  consequently  all  that  it  re- 
ceived. Neither  his  ecclesiastical  nor  theological  principles 
were  firm  or  aggressive.  He  was  a  bishop  of  the  type  of 
the  Georgian  era.  His  interest  was  in  his  studies  rather 
than  in  his  diocese.  He  was  an  accomplished  scholar  and 
a  good  botanist ;  and  on  the  death  of  his  wife,  which  was 
to  him  ^  most  terrible  affliction,  he  resigned  his  jurisdiction 
and  retired  from   the  duties  of  his  office.^     This  was  in 

1  The  minute  of  the  House  of  Bishops  in  regard  to  Bishop  Provoost's  let- 
ter informing  them  of  his  resignation  is  as  follows  : 

"  The  House  of  Bishops  having  consitlered  the  subject  brought  before 
them  by  the  letter  of  Bishop  Provoost,  and  by  the  message  from  the  House 
of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  touching  the  same,  can  see  no  grounds  on  which 
to  believe  that  the  contemplated  resignation  is  consistent  with  ecclesiastical 


394  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

1 80 1.  Under  so  lukewarm  a  diocesan  the  diocese  could 
not  greatly  advance.  In  fact,  Bishop  Provoost  thought  it 
would  die  out  with  the  old  colonial  families.  Such  prog- 
ress as  was  made  came  rather  from  the  vis  inertiae  of  the 
church  system  than  the  efficiency  of  its  leadership.  Some 
few  ordinations  were  held ;  some  few  churches,  as  that  at 
Duanesburg  (the  gift  of  a  private  individual,  Hon.  James 
Duane),  and  that  at  Ballston,  and  St.  Mark's  in  the  Bowery 
(erected  by  Mr.  Stuyvesant,  a  great-grandson  of  the  last 
Dutch  governor),  were  consecrated. 

There  w^as  a  movement  of  the  Lutherans  in  the  State  of 
New  York  to  join  the  Episcopal  Church  in  1797  ;  but  the 
Convention  to  which  the  proposition  was  to  be  referred 
was  unfortunately  delayed  by  the  prevalence  of  the  yellow 
fever,  and  could  not  meet  until  1801.  At  that  time  the 
resignation  of  Bishop  Provoost  occupied  all  the  attention 
that  was  given  to  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  a  great  move- 
ment for  church  comprehension  passed  unheeded  by.  It 
was  significant  of  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  times.  After 
Bishop  Moore  was  consecrated,  Zion  Church,  the  first  Eng- 
lish Lutheran  church  in  New  York  City,  became  (rector, 

order,  or  with  the  practice  of  Episcopal  churches  in  any  ages,  or  with  the 
tenor  of  the  Office  of  Consecration.  Accordingly,  while  they  sympathize  most 
tenderly  with  their  brother,  Bishop  Provoost,  on  account  of  that  ill  health  and 
those  melancholy  occurrences  which  have  led  to  the  design  in  question,  they 
judge  it  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  sacred  trust  connnitted  to  them  to  recog- 
nize the  bishop's  act  as  an  effectual  resignation  of  his  episcopal  jurisdiction. 
Nevertheless,  being  sensible  of  the  present  exigencies  of  the  church  of  New 
York,  and  approving  of  their  making  provision  for  the  actual  discharge  of  the 
duties  of  the  episcopacy,  tlie  bishops  of  this  house  are  ready  to  consecrate  to 
the  office  of  a  bishop  any  person  who  may  be  presented  to  them  with  the 
requisite  testimonials  from  the  General  and  State  Conventions,  and  of  whose 
religious,  moral,  and  literary  character  due  satisfaction  may  be  given.  But 
this  house  must  be  understood  to  be  e.xplicit  in  their  declaration  that  they 
shall  consider  such  a  person  as  assistant  or  coadjutor  bishop  during  Bishop 
Provoost's  life,  although  competent,  in  point  of  character,  to  all  the  episcopal 
duties  ;  the  extent  in  which  the  same  shall  be  discharged  by  him  to  be  depend- 
ent on  such  regulations  as  expediency  may  dictate  to  the  church  in  New  York, 
grounded  on  the  indispositibn  of  Bishop  Provoost,  and  with  his  concurrence." 


BISHOP  BENJAMIN  MOORE.  395 

officers,  and  congregation)  Episcopal,  Iiaving  previously 
sent  out  an  offshoot  in  St.  Stephen's  Church  to  the  same 
communion.  Such  movements  were,  however,  due  more 
to  the  attractiveness  of  the  church,  as  possessed  of  an 
English  liturgy,  than  to  the  solicitation  or  interest  of  the 
members  of  the  Episcopal  community.-^ 

The  Rev.  Benjamin  Moore,  D.D.,  rector  of  Trinity 
Church,  was  unanimously  elected  bishop  of  the  diocese 
the  day  after  Bishop  Provoost's  resignation.  The  House 
of  Bishops  consented  to  consecrate  him  as  "  assistant  or 
coadjutor  bishop  during  Bishop  Provoost's  life,"  demur- 
ring to  the  validity  of  the  resignation,  but  recognizing  the 
necessity  of  putting  some  one  at  the  head  of  the  diocese. 
The  Diocesan  Convention,  however,  had  not  elected  him 
as  coadjutor,  and  paid  no  attention  to  the  intimation  of  the 
bishops.  Bishop  Moore  always  acted,  and  the  "Journal " 
of  the  Convention  always  referred  to  him,  as  "  head  of  the 
church  in  New  York."  He  was  a  man  of  mild  manners 
and  of  gentle  speech,  thoroughly  Christian  in  his  temper 
as  in  his  life  ;  one  who  without  aggressiveness  commended 
the  church  in  his  own  person  to  the  confidence  of  the 
public;  not  fitted  so  much  to  arouse  enthusiasm  as  to  win 


1  The  trend  toward  tlie  Episcopal  Church  among  the  Germans  in  New 
York  was  fostered,  if  not  started,  by  the  determination  of  the  Lutherans  to 
conduct  their  services  in  the  German  language  only.  The  children,  growing 
up  to  speak  English,  were  impatient  of  the  custom.  When,  in  1797,  "  The 
Trustees  for  the  English  Lutheran  Church  in  the  City  of  New  York  "  were 
incorporated,  and  had  informed  the  evangelical  Ministerium  meeting  at^Rhine- 
beck  of  their  action,  and  the  reasons  for  it,  the  Lutheran  Consistory,  in  set 
resolutions,  declared  "  that  they  do  not  look  upon  persons  who  are  not  yet 
communicants  of  a  Lutheran  church  as  apostates  in  case  they  join  an  English 
Episcopalian  church,"  but  "  that  this  Consistory  will  never  ackno\\ledge  anew- 
erected  Lutheran  church  merely  English,  in  places  where  members  may  par- 
take of  the  services  of  the  said  Episcopal  Church."  This  resolve  they  based 
on  the  "  intimate  connection  subsisting  between  the  English  Episcopal  Church 
and  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  the  identity  of  their  doctrine  and  near  alliance 
of  their  church  discipline."  (See  "  History  of  the  Church  of  Zion  and  St. 
Timothy  of  Ne\\-  York,"  by  David  CJarkson  [1894],  pp.  5,  6.) 


396  rROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

respect  for  it.  Perhaps,  in  that  formative  time,  it  was  its 
strength  to  stand  still. 

The  neighboring  diocese  of  New  Jersey  was  also  far  from 
prosperous.  Some  smoldering  life  and  organization  it  had, 
forming  in  1 790  a  standing  committee  of  clergy  and  laity 
"  for  the  recommending  of  candidates  for  holy  orders,"  and 
giving  its  adhesion  to  the  proceedings  of  the  General  Con- 
\ention  of  i  789  in  establishing  the  constitution,  the  canons, 
and  the  Prayer-book.  It  had  no  bishop  of  its  own  at  this 
period,  though  it  made  an  attempt  to  secure  one  by  elect- 
ing in  1796  the  Rev.  Uzal  Ogden,  D.D.,  rector  of  Trin- 
ity Church,  Newark,  to  the  episcopate.  This  choice  was 
never  confirmed,  the  General  Convention  complaining  of 
irregularities  in  the  election.  Before  these  could  be  recti- 
fied, ecclesiastical  irregularities  on  the  part  of  the  candidate 
produced  the  conviction  that  he  was  nearer  allied  in  opinion 
and  sympathy  with  the  Presbyterians,  whom  he  afterward 
served,  than  with  his  own  communion. 

Farther  north,  in  Connecticut,  things  moved  slowly  on  in 
much  the  accustomed  way.  Though  Bishop  Seabury  had, 
before  the  ratification  of  the  Prayer-book,  himself  issued 
a  Communion  Office  nearer  allied  to  the  Scotch  than  the 
book  of  1 789,  he  set  diligently  to  work  to  introduce  the 
new  book  to  which  he  had  pledged  himself,  notwithstanding 
its,  to  him,  objectionable  features.  He  found  his  steady- 
going  people,  in  some  instances,  more  conservative  than 
himself.  A  Rev.  Mr.  Sayre,  of  Stratford,  was  stubborn 
and  would  not  conform.  He  left  this  honored  parish  and 
stirred  up  strife  at  Woodbury  which  it  took  time  to  quell. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Dibblee,  of  Stamford,  had  to  be  entreated  by 
the  bishop  as  a  father  before  he  would  comply.  "  Is  not, 
then,  the  unity  of  the  whole  church  through  the  States  a 
price  sufficient  to  justify  the  alterations  which  have  been 
made?"  asks  the  bishop  in  a  letter  which  recognizes  at 


DEATH  OF  BISHOP  SEA  BURY.  397 

once  the  worthiness  and  narrowness  of  his  presbyter.'  The 
bishop,  in  fine,  acted  fully  up  to  iiis  implied  stipulations 
in  joining  the  national  church.  Though  it  was  not  in  the 
bond,  lay  delegates  were  introduced  into  the  State  Conven- 
tion of  1792,  although,  even  up  to  the  present  time,  the 
laity  have  not  been  represented  in  the  standing  committee 
of  the  diocese. 

In  1790  Rhode  Island  had  formally  put  itself  under 
Bishop  Seabury's  jurisdiction  ;  and  he  made  regular  visita- 
tions to  the  four  parishes  which  remained  there,  and  which, 
though  few  in  numbers,  gave  him  no  little  trouble  with 
their  feuds.  He  was  thoroughly  diligent  and  spared  him- 
self no  labor.  He  was  as  loyal  to  the  new  church  as  he 
had  been  to  the  old  king.  He  was  prevented  from  taking 
part  in  any  but  one  General  Convention  after  1789  (that 
of  1 792,  when  he  assisted  at  the  consecration  of  Bishop 
Claggett) ;  for  an  epidemic  cut  him  ofif  from  that  of  1795, 
held  in  Philadelphia,  and  shortly  afterward  he  died.  A 
stroke  of  apoplexy,  February  25,  1796,  brought  his  life 
and  labors  to  an  end  together.  It  was  the  removal  of  a 
marked  man,  whose  resolute  devotion  to  his  convictions 
enabled  him  to  secure  an  influence  larger  than  his  mental 
equipment  would  seem  to  warrant.  He  was  not,  indeed, 
inteUectually  deficient.  He  had  a  fair  measure  of  learning 
and  a  larger  endowment  of  both  wisdom  and  wit ;-  but  the 

1  He  is  supposed  to  have  yielded ;  but  his  hold  on  his  parishioners,  and  their 
awe  of  him,  is  shown  in  their  vote  at  a  parish  meeting  held  April  9,  1792,  of 
which  what  follows  is  a  record : 

"  Past  a  vote  to  adopt  the  new  constitution  or  liturgy  of  the  church,  as 
agreed  upon  by  the  bishop  and  clergy  of  this  State,  provided  that  it  is  agree- 
able to  Rev.  Air.  Dibblee.'" 

2  He  was  desirous  of  retaining  in  the  Prayer  for  the  President  the  sono- 
rous phrase  "  health  and  wealth,"  instead  of  the  substituted  "  health  and  pros- 
perity." Dining  with  Bishop  White  after  the  change  had  been  determined, 
he  said  to  the  latter's  wife,  "  Hereafter  I  suppose  I  must  address  your  husband 
as  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Common  Prosperity  of 
Pennsylvania."     (Beardsley,  "  Life  of  Seabury,"  p.  381.) 


398  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap,  xiv, 

source  of  his  power  lay  in  his  unswerving  loyalty  to  princi- 
ple. It  was  genuine  grit  which  gained  him  both  station  and 
influence,  and  his  impress  on  the  church  he  served  is  indelible. 

He  was  succeeded  in  office  by  the  Rev.  Abraham  Jarvis, 
D.D.,  who  was  thrice  elected  bishop,  and  finally  accepted 
the  office,  being  consecrated  in  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven, 
October  i8,  1797,  by  Bishops  White,  Provoost,  and  Bass. 
His  episcopate  was  a  quiet  one  of  sixteen  years,  during 
which  he  strengthened  the  foundations  of  the  Episcopal 
Academy  at  Cheshire,  which  Bishop  Seabury  had  estab- 
lished in  1792,  and  also  started  the  "  Churchman's  Maga- 
zine "  in  1804,  contributing  in  both  these  measures  to  the 
literary  standing  of  the  church. 

In  Massachusetts  and  the  rest  of  New  England  this 
period  was,  as  elsewhere,  one  of  an  enfeebled  vitality. 
Dr.  Edward  Bass,  of  Newbury  port,  who  had  declined  his 
nomination  as  bishop  soon  after  the  Convention  of  1789, 
was  again  elected  in  i  796,  and  was  consecrated  in  Phila- 
delphia May  7,  1797.  At  his  first  Diocesan  Convention,  in 
I  798,  there  were  only  five  clerical  and  seven  lay  deputies 
present.  Trinity  Church  and  Christ  Church  were  the  only 
two  parishes  at  that  time  in  Boston,  and  Bishop  Bass  con- 
tinued to  act  as  rector  of  his  old  Church  of  St.  Paul  at  New- 
bury port,  as  before  his  advancement  to  the  episcopate.  He 
was  a  good,  but  by  no  means  a  great,  man  ;  and  the  church 
under  his  rule  was  kept  respectable,  but  respectably  small.' 
It  is  a  matter  of  lasting  regret  that  during  these  first  years 
of  formation  the  church  could  not  have  had  the  inspiring 
leadership  of  Dr.  Parker,  the  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Bos- 
ton, the  distinctly  superior  man  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
at  the  North ;  able,  liberal,  loyal ;  a  marked  personage  in 
the  city,  who  would  have  compelled  attention  and  deserved 

1   He  consecrated  only  one  church  (a  new  one  for  his  own  parish)  during 
his  episcopate. 


THE    THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES.  399 

it.  He  had  been  able  to  keep  Trinity  Church  open  during 
the  Revolution,  knowing  how  to  be  both  wise  and  true. 
Being  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  and  a  man  of  social  station 
and  fine  manners,  as  well  as  a  dignified  divine,  he  was  a 
marked  character  in  the  community.  He  became  the  suc- 
cessor of  Bishop  Bass,  who  died  in  1803,  and  was  conse- 
crated by  Bishop  White  in  New  York,  at  the  meeting  of 
the  General  Convention  in  1804.  Taken  ill  immediately 
on  his  return  to  Boston,  he  died  three  months  after  his  con- 
secration, never  having  performed  a  single  episcopal  act. 
From  that  time  until  18 10  Massachusetts  was  without  a 
bishop.  It  then  became  part  of  the  Eastern  diocese,  which 
comprised  all  New  England  outside  of  Connecticut,  and 
came  under  Bishop  Griswold's  jurisdiction.^ 

It  is  evident  that,  with  its  several  members  so  enfeebled, 
the  corporate  body  could  not  be  strong.  The  General  Con- 
vention, sparsely  attended,  did  some  good  things  which 
were  not  great,  and  failed  to  do  some  great  things  which 
would  have  been  good.  In  1 792  an  alternate  form  was 
allowed  in  the  ordinal  in  the  Form  and  Manner  of  Order- 
ing Priests,  so  that,  in  the  imposition  of  hands  in  ordination, 
the  bishop  may  lawfully  use  either.  A  Form  of  Consecra- 
tion of  a  Church  or  Chapel  was  added  to  the  Prayer-book 
in  1799;  and  in  1801  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  were  at  last, 
after  long  delay  and  many  fruitless  attempts  at  amendment 
or  substitution, "  established,"  in  order  to  identify  the  church 
doctrinally  with  the  Church  of  England.-     They  were  ap- 

1  After  the  death  of  Bishop  Bass,  and  before  the  election  of  Bishop  Parker, 
Judge  Dudley  Atkins  Tyng,  of  Newburyport,  a  devout  and  distinguished  lay- 
man, was  urged,  on  behalf  of  the  clergy  of  l\Ias?achusetts  and  Rhode  Island, 
"  to  receive  orders  as  deacon  and  priest,  that  they  might,  with  as  little  delay 
as  possible,  elect  him  their  bishop."  He  declined  the  request,  the  only  one 
of  the  kind  ever  made  to  a  layman  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  (See 
"  Life  of  Stephen  R.  Tyng,  D.D.,"  p.  21.) 

2  "  The  object  kept  in  view,  in  all  the  consultations  held  and  the  determina- 
tions formed,  was  the  perpetuating  of  the  Episcopal  Church  on  the  ground  of 
the  general  principles  which  she  had  inherited  from  the  Church  of  England ; 


400  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

pended  to  the  Prayer-book  as  accepted  historical  theolog- 
ical statements,  and  as  committing  the  church  to  the  gen- 
eral doctrinal  position  of  the  Church  of  England  in  re- 
gard to  the  controversy  with  Rome  out  of  which  they 
sprang;  but  no  canon  concerning  a  special  subscription  to 
them  was  then,  or  has  at  any  time  since  been,  enacted.' 
The  Office  of  Institution  of  Ministers  (under  the  title  of 
Induction,  afterward  changed)  was  adopted  in  1804,  being 
essentially  an  office  prepared  in  1 799  for  the  diocese  of  Con- 
necticut by  Rev.  Dr.  WilHam  Smith,  a  nephew  of  Provost 
Smith,  of  Philadelphia,  and  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Nor- 
walk.  Its  phraseology  stands  out  in  such  distinct  contrast 
to  that  of  the  rest  of  the  Prayer-book  as  to  emphasize  the 
absence  in  the  old  formularies  of  terms  which  this  office 

and  of  not  departing  from  them,  except  so  far  as  either  local  circumstances  re- 
quired or  some  very  important  cause  rendered  proper.  To  those  acquainted 
with  the  system  of  the  Church  of  England  it  must  be  evident  that  the  object 
here  stated  was  accomplished  on  the  ratification  of  the  Articles."  (Bishop 
White,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Church,"  p.  33.) 

It  should  further  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  it  appears  from  the 
"  Journal"  of  the  Convention  of  1804  that  "  a  proposed  canon,  concerning 
subscription  to  the  Articles  of  the  church,  \\as  negatived,  under  the  impres- 
sion that  a  sufficient  subscription  to  the  Articles  is  already  required  by  the 
Seventh  Article  of  the  Constitution."  (See  "  Half-century  of  Legislation  of 
the  American  Church,"  vol.  i.,  p.  301.) 

1  The  Articles,  to  quote  Bishop  White,  "  were  therefore  adopted  by  the 
two  Houses  of  Convention,  without  their  altering  of  even  the  obsolete  diction 
in  them  ;  but  with  notices  of  such  changes  as  change  of  situation  had  rendered 
necessary."     The  action  setting  forth  the  Articles  is  as  follows  : 

"  Resolution  of  the  bishops,  the  clergy,  and  laity  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  in  Convention,  in  the  city  of 
Trenton,  the  12th  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1801,  respecting 
Articles  of  Religion. 

"  The  Articles  of  Religion  are  hereby  ordered  to  be  set  forth  with  the  fol- 
lowing directions,  to  be  observed  in  all  future  editions  of  the  same ;  that  is 
to  say : 

"  The  following  to  be  the  title,  viz.  : 

"  '  Articles  of  Religion,  as  established  by  the  bishops,  the  clergy,  and  the 
laity  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  in 
Convention,  on  the  1 2th  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1801.' 

"  The  Articles  to  stand  as  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church 
of  England,  with  the  following  alterations  and  omiss'ions  "  'Here  follow 
the  changes  in  Articles  8,  35,  and  36.) 


CAAOAS  CONCERaYING  MORALS.  40 1 

alone  employs.  For  this  reason,  though  there  is  much 
beauty  in  the  service,  it  has  been  less  used  than  any  other 
portion  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

The  much-desired  veto  power  was  given  to  the  House 
of  Bishops  in  1 804,  unfortunately  too  late  to  gratify  Bishop 
Seabury,  its  chief  advocate ;  and  morals  were  not  over- 
looked in  the  legislation  of  the  period,  which  was  chiefly 
ritual.  In  order  to  discountenance  dueling,  so  prevalent  at 
the  time,  a  resolution  was  adopted  declaring  that  the  clergy 
ought  not  to  perform  the  Burial  Service  in  the  case  of  any 
person  who  should  give  or  accept  a  challenge.  The  adoption 
of  the  Table  of  Degrees  of  Affinity  in  relation  to  marriage,  of 
force  in  the  English  Church,  was  urged  by  some,  but  it  was 
not  conceded.  In  its  place  a  resolution  in  regard  to  divorce 
was  adopted,  declaring  "  That  it  is  the  sense  of  this  church 
that  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  God ;  and  the  minis- 
ters of  this  church,  therefore,  shall  not  unite  in  matrimony 
any  person  who  is  divorced,  unless  it  be  on  account  of  the 
other  party  having  been  guilty  of  adultery."  Earlier  than 
this  by  some  years  measures  were  proposed  for  evangeliz- 
ing the  West;  and  "An  Act  of  the  General  Convention 
for  Supporting  Missionaries  to  Preach  the  Gospel  on  the 
Frontiers  of  the  United  States"  was  passed  in  1792.  It 
was  not  effective,  but  it  showed  an  awakened  spirit  con- 
cerning the  duty  of  the  church  in  these  first  years  of  its 
existence.  Attention  was  also  directed  to  the  theological 
education  of  candidates  for  the  ministry;  and  in  1804 
"  A  Course  of  Ecclesiastical  Studies  "  was  established  by 
the  House  of  Bishops  in  pursuance  of  a  request  made  by 
the  preceding  Convention. 

Many  petty  matters,  which  were  the  occasion  of  sound 
legislation,  vexed  the  minds  of  the  bishops  and  deputies 
from  time  to  time.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Purcell,  a  deputy  from 
South  Carolina,  had  pubHshed  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  Stric- 


402  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

tures  on  the  Love  of  Power  in  the  Prelacy,"  leveled  at 
Bishop  Seabury  for  his  advocacy  of  the  veto  power  of  the 
House  of  Bishops.  When  brought  to  the  notice  of  the 
House  of  Deputies  by  Rev.  Dr.  Andrews,  of  Virginia,  it 
was  condemned  as  containing  "  very  offensive  and  censur- 
able matter."  Dr.  Purcell  apologized,  but,  after  the  ad- 
journment of  the  Convention,  he  challenged  his  brother 
clergyman  to  fight  a  duel,  and  was  bound  over  to  keep 
the  peace  by  the  civil  courts.  Rev.  Ammi  Rogers  caused 
great  vexation  by  his  persistent  demands  to  be  recognized 
and  reinstated  in  the  ministry  after  most  reprehensible  be- 
havior. Rejected  as  a  candidate  by  Bishop  Seabury,  he  had 
removed  from  Connecticut  td  New  York,  and,  applying  to 
Bishop  Provoost  for  ordination,  had  forged  the  signature  of 
the  secretary  of  the  Connecticut  Convention  to  a  testimo- 
nial in  his  behalf.  This  certificate,  being  deemed  genuine, 
secured  his  ordination  in  New  York.  On  moving  back 
to  Connecticut  he  was  inhibited  from  officiating  by  Bishop 
Jarvis ;  but,  proving  refractory,  the  House  of  Bishops  was 
asked  to  decide  to  what  jurisdiction  he  was  amenable. 
He  was  assigned  to  Connecticut  and  pronounced  worthy 
of  degradation  from  the  ministry.  His  case  occasioned 
the  passage  of  canons  relating  to  the  transfer  of  clergymen 
from  one  diocese  to  another,  which  prevented  for  the  future 
any  such  disgraceful  complication. 

At  the  General  Convention  of  1795  a  communication 
was  presented  from  Vermont  asking  for  the  consecration, 
as  bishop  of  that  State,  of  Rev.  Samuel  Peters,  LL.D.,  the 
testimonials  asserting  that  he  had  been  elected  the  previous 
year.  It  was  a  most  flagrant  case  of  ecclesiastical  effront- 
ery, quite  worthy  to  be  associated  with  the  author  of  "  A 
General  History  of  Connecticut,"  in  which  publication 
Peters  had  satirized  his  State  by  the  invention  of  the  Blue 
Laws  and  many  other  equally  incredible  narrations.      He 


THE    CHURCH  AND    THE  METHODISTS.  403 

had  not  for  twenty  years  resided  in  Vermont,  nor  exercised 
his  ministry  anywhere,  and  was  now  abroad,  having  unsuc- 
cessfully appHed  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  for  con- 
secration, and  having  announced  his  purpose  to  apply  to  the 
Scotch  bishops.  There  was  but  one  Episcopal  clergyman 
in  Vermont,  and  he  there  temporarily  ;  and  the  election  had 
been  compassed  by  "  the  Episcopalians  (twelve  in  number) 
of  Vermont,  united  with  a  body  of  those  not  previously 
of  that  communion."^  The  request  was  refused  on  the 
ground  that  Vermont  had  not  acceded  to  the  constitution 
of  the  church.  The  result  of  this  request  was  the  enact- 
ment of  a  canon  providing  that  the  church  in  a  State  shall 
not  be  entitled  to  a  resident  bishop  unless  there  shall  be 
at  least  six  presbyters  residing  and  officiating  therein. 
Another  canon,  growing  out  of  an  existing  abuse,  was 
enacted,  forbidding  the  union  of  a  congregation  in  one 
diocese  with  the  church  in  any  other  jurisdiction. 

These  instances  of  personal  baseness  and  effrontery 
would  not  deserve  record  save  for  the  light  which  they 
throw  on  the  difficulties  which  the  newly  established 
church  was  called  to  encounter.  It  was  a  period  in  which 
she  was  learning  to  understand  herself,  and  to  gather  her 
forces  together  in  the  midst  of  misapprehension  from  with- 
out and  of  many  insidious  attempts  to  impose  upon  her 
from  within.  Caution  was  a  virtue  to  be  cherished  then ; 
not  the  highest  of  virtues,  but  the  necessary  precursor  of 
higher.  And  this  explains,  if  it  does  not  wholly  excuse, 
the  hesitancy  or  indifference  of  the  church  to  the  move- 
ments made  to  comprehend  the  recently  removed  Meth- 
odists within  the  fold.  This  was  the  great  mistake  of  this 
period,  whose  results  are  felt  forcibly  to-day.  Could  that 
union  have  then  occurred,  both  parties  to  it  would  have 
immensely  benefited,  and  the  influence  of  these  united 
1  Sprague,  "Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,"  vol.  v.,  p.  195. 


404  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

forces  would  have  constituted  the  great  Christian  power 
of  the  continent.  But  no  one  had  the  gift  of  prophecy. 
Conservatism  appeared  to  be  the  sole  safeguard  of  the 
church,  and  unregulated  evangelization  the  sole  duty  of  the 
Methodists.  Bishop  Madison,  as  we  have  seen,  had  a  keen 
sense  of  the  dangers  of  a  permanent  disruption,  and  a 
strong  hope  that  it  might  be  overcome.  In  the  General 
Convention  of  1792  he  had  offered  a  proposition  to  that 
effect.  This  proposition,  as  agreed  to  by  the  House  of 
Bishops,  was  as  follows  : 

"  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States 
of  America,  ever  bearing  in  mind  the  sacred  obligation 
which  attends  all  the  followers  of  Christ  to  avoid  divisions 
among  themselves,  and  anxious  to  promote  that  union  for 
which  our  Lord  and  Saviour  so  earnestly  prayed,  do 
hereby  declare  to  the  Christian  world  that,  uninfluenced 
by  any  other  considerations  than  those  of  duty  as  Chris- 
tians, and  an  earnest  desire  for  the  prosperity  of  pure 
Christianity  and  the  furtherance  of  our  holy  religion,  they 
are  ready  and  willing  to  unite  and  form  one  body  with  any 
religious  society  which  shall  be  influenced  by  the  same 
catholic  spirit.  And  in  order  that  this  Christian  end  may 
be  the  more  easily  effected,  they  further  declare  that  all 
things  in  which  the  great  essentials  of  Christianity  and  the 
characteristic  principles  of  their  church  are  not  concerned, 
they  are  willing  to  leave  to  future  discussion,  being  ready 
to  alter  or  modify  those  points  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  are  subject  to  human  alter- 
ation. And  it  is  Kereby  recommended  to  the  State 
Conventions  to  adopt  such  measures  or  propose  such  con- 
ferences with  Christians  of  other  denominations  as  to 
themselves  may  be  thought  most  prudent,  and  report 
accordingly  to  the  ensuing  General  Convention." 

This  proposition  was  communicated  to  the   House  of 


DR.    COKE  AND  BISHOP    WHITE.  405 

Deputies  ;  but,  although  a  few  gentlemen  who  were  cogni- 
zant of  the  correspondence  between  Dr.  Coke  and  Bishop 
White  favored  its  consideration,  it  was  generally  regarded 
as  "preposterous,"  and  as  "tending  to  produce  distrust 
of  the  stability  of  the  system  of  the  Episcopal  Church, 
without  the  least  prospect  of  embracing  any  other  relig- 
ious body."  Agreeably  to  leave  granted  "  as  a  matter  of 
indulgence,"  the  bishops  withdrew  the  proposition,  which 
constituted  the  earliest  recorded  document  bearing  upon 
the  questions  of  church  unity  and  comprehension,  which 
have  from  time  to  time  agitated  the  Episcopal  communion. 
The  reference  to  a  correspondence  between  Dr.  Coke 
and  Bishop  White  gives  us  a  key  to  the  understanding  of 
the  whole  matter  in  relation  to  the  Methodists.  Since  Dr. 
Coke's  appearance  in  America  as  ordained  superintend- 
ent of  the  Methodist  societies,  and  his  ordination  of  Mr. 
Asbury,  the  separation  from  the  Episcopal  Church  had 
been  complete.  In  the  beginning  of  this  movement 
Rev.  Dr.  West,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Baltimore, 
invited  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr.  Asbury  to  his  house  to  discuss 
the  situation ;  but  nothing  came  of  the  interview,  though 
Dr.  Coke  owned  it  would  be  more  regular  and  consistent 
to  "  connect  the  succession."  When  Dr.  White  went  to 
England  for  his  episcopal  consecration  he  took'  letters  to 
both  John  and  Charles  Wesley  from  their  friend,  Rev. 
Joseph  Pilmore,  hoping  to  make  some  arrangement  by 
which  the  Methodists  might  be  retained  in  the  Episcopal 
communion.  He  saw  Charles  Wesley,  but  could  not 
meet  John ;  and  though  he  tried  to  effect  something, 
nothing  came  of  his  efforts.  The  desire  for  the  union  of 
the  two  bodies  may  not  have  been  general  on  the  part  of 
the  American  Methodists,  but  some  held  to  it.  Joseph 
Pilmore,  one  of  the  two  preachers  first  sent  to  America 
by  Wesley  in  i  769,  was  one  of  the  first  to  be  ordained  by 


406  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xiv. 

Bishop  Seabury  on  his  return.  Thomas  Vasey,  also,  one 
of  those  on  whom  Wesley  had  laid  hands  in  his  chamber 
at  Bristol  when  he  commissioned  Dr.  Coke,  was  ordained 
by  Bishop  White  almost  immediately  upon  his  arrival  from 
England.  Other  Methodist  preachers  were  ordained  by 
the  American  bishops.  It  was  in  April,  1791,  that  Dr. 
Coke  wrote  to  Bishop  White  on  the  subject  of  the  union 
of  the  two  bodies.  He  was  fully  aware  of  the  sentiments 
of  Mr.  Wesley,  and  declared  concerning  him,  "  He  went 
further,  I  am  sure,  than  he  would  have  gone  if  he  had 
seen  some  events  which  followed ;  and  this  I  am  now  cer- 
tain of,  that  he  is  now  sorry  for  the  separation."  ' 

"The  general  outline  of  Dr.  Coke's  plan  was,"-  as 
Bishop  White  recounts  it,  "  a  reordination  of  Methodist 
ministers,  and  their  continuing  under  the  superintendence 
then  existing,  and  in  the  practice  of  their  peculiar  institu- 
tions. There  was  also  suggested  by  him  the  propriety, 
not  named  as  a  condition,  of  admitting  to  the  episcopacj^ 
himself  and  the  gentleman  (Mr.  Asbury)  associated  with 
him  in  the  superintendence  of  the  Methodist  societies."  ^ 

Dr.  Coke  was  anxious  that  something  might  be  arranged 
before  the  death  of  Mr.  Wesley,  who  was  now  very  old 
and  feeble,  knowing  that  his  approval  would  settle  the 
matter,  but  that  without  such  consent  its  accomplishment 
was  more  than  doubtful.  Before,  however,  he  received 
Bishop  White's  guarded  answer,  which  was  sent  within  a 
few  weeks,  Mr.  Wesley  died,  and  Dr.  Coke  was  called  off 
to  England.  On  his  way  to  embark  from  Philadelphia  he 
called  to  see  Bishop  White ;  but  nothing  definite  was  de- 
cided at  the  two  interviews  which  ensued,  and  Dr.  Coke 
was   anxious   that   the   matter  should  be   kept   from   Mr. 

1  See  Perry,  "  Facsimiles  of  Church  Documents." 

2  Letter  to  Rev.  Samuel  Wetmore,  dated  July  30,  1804.    (See  Perry,  "  Fac- 
similes of  Church  Documents.") 


DR.    COKE  AND  BISHOP  SEA  BURY.  407 

Asbury,  who  had  not  been  consulted  by  him.  Bishop 
White,  therefore,  could  do  no  more.  Dr.  Coke  also  wrote, 
after  Mr.  Wesley's  death,  to  Bishop  Seabury  a  letter ' 
dated  May  14,  1791,  in  which  he  embodied  the  proposals 
made  to  Bishop  White  in  a  form  yet  more  distinct.  "  If," 
he  says,  "  the  two  houses  of  the  Convention  of  the  clergy 
would  consent  to  the  consecration  of  Mr.  Asbury  and  me 
as  bishops  of  the  Methodist  society  in  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  these  United  States  (or  by  any  other 
title,  if  that  were  not  proper),  on  the  supposition  of  the 
reunion  of  the  two  churches,  under  proper  mutual  stipula- 
tions, and  engage  that  the  Methodist  society  should  have 
a  regular  supply  on  the  death  of  their  bishop,  and  so  ad 
perpettiani,  the  grand  difficulty  in  respect  to  the  preachers 
would  bo  removed."  He  ends  his  communication  by  de- 
claring, "  I  most  cordially  wish  for  a  reunion  of  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  and  the  Methodist  churches  in  these  States. 
The  object  is  of  vast  magnitude."  - 

It  is  true  that,  fifteen  years  after,  when  his  memory 
seems  to  have  become  confused  concerning  what  he  had 
proposed,  Dr.  Coke  changed  his  mind,  and,  in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Asbury  in  1808,  says,  "  I  now  see  that  the  failure  of 
my  plan,  which  was  laid  down  from  the  purest  motives, 
was  for  the  best."  No  true  advocate  of  church  unity 
can  agree  with  him.  There  is  nothing  in  the  plan  which 
does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  the  Chicago-Lambeth 
Declaration  concerning  Unity  ;  and  were  the  Methodists  of 
Dr.  Coke's  mind  to-day,  the  union  might  be  accomplished. 
At  that  time  much  stood  in  the  way  of  it.  On  the  part  of 
the  Methodists  there  was  doubt  or  disbelief  of  the  religious 

1  The  original  of  this  letter  is  in  the  possession  of  Professor  William  Sea- 
bury  (great-grandson  of  the  bishop),  of  the  General  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York.     It  is  printed  in  "  Facsimiles  of  Church  Documents  "  (Perry). 

2  See  article  by  Dr.  Charles  R.  Hale,  "  The  American  Church  and  Meth- 
odism," in  "  Church  Review"  for  January,  1891. 


408  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chai'.  xiv. 

character  of  the  Episcopal  clergy.  They  deemed  them 
unconverted,  having  the  form  but  denying  the  power  of 
godliness.  The  plan  of  Dr.  Coke  might  have  pleased 
Wesley  had  he  lived  to  hear  of  it ;  but  it  would  not  have 
pleased  Wesleyans,  save  as  being  the  will  of  their  founder. 
Dr.  Coke's  concealment  of  the-  proposal  from  Mr.  Asbury, 
much  the  greater  man  of  the  two,  indicates  that  it  was  a 
personal  scheme  of  his  own  rather  than  the  embodiment  of 
a  general  sentiment  of  the  Methodists.  On  the  part  of  the 
Episcopalians  there  was  the  difficult  question  of  sanction- 
ing an  uneducated  ministry  (for  the  Methodist  preachers 
were  raised  from  the  ranks  of  the  laity,  without  schol- 
arly training),  and  the  danger  of  having  their  newly  con- 
structed constitution  exposed  to  a  strain  it  might  hardly 
be  able  to  bear.  On  both  sides,  moreover,  there  was  a 
lack  of  genuine  interest  in,  or  comprehension  of,  the  sub- 
ject of  unity.  A  century  has  developed  sentiments  then 
dormant  or  unknown.  Time  has  added  to  the  difficulties 
of  a  settlement ;  but  it  has  also  deepened  a  conviction  and 
stirred  a  feeling  which  may  prove  more  than  a  match  for 
the  difficulties.  In  one  respect  the  tables  are  turned. 
The  church  of  Seabury  and  White  now  holds  out  the 
hand. 

How  weak  that  church  was  then,  how  little  self-assured 
or  inspired,  is  made  evident  by  the  last  General  Con- 
vention of  the  period  we  are  considering,  the  Conven- 
tion of  1808,  held  in  Baltimore.  Only  two  bishops.  White 
and  Claggett,  were  present,  meeting  in  a  hall  bedroom  of 
the  rectory  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  still  standing  on  Saratoga 
Street.  Only  seven  dioceses  were  represented,  and  of 
these  New  Jersey  sent  no  clerical  deputies  and  Rhode 
Island  no  laymen.  On  account  of  this  sparse  attendance 
resolutions  were  adopted  urging  the  duty  of  sending  reg- 
ularly   a   deputation   to    the    General    Convention.      This 


GENERAL    CONVENl'ION  OE  180S.  409 

Convention,  small  as  it  was,  was  not  an  harmonious  one-. 
A  sharp  spirit  of  controversy  cropped  out,  and  it  seemed 
a  house  divided  against  itself.  Bishop'  White  wrote  of  it 
despondingly  as  follows : 

"  On  a  retrospect  of  the  transactions  of  this  Convention 
there  is  entertained  the  trust  that  it  did  not  end  without  a 
general  tendency  to  consolidate  the  communion  ;  although, 
in  the  course  of  the  business,  there  has  been  displayed, 
more  than  in  any  other  Convention,  the  influence  of  some 
notions  leading  far  wide  of  that  rational  devotion  which 
this  church  has  inherited  from  the  Church  of  England. 
The  spirit  here  complained  of  was  rather  moderated  than 
raised  higher  during  the  session.  But  it  being  liable  to  be 
combined  with  schemes  of  personal  consequence,  there  is 
no  foreseeing  to  what  lengths  it  may  extend  in  future."  ^ 

1  White,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Church,"  p.  208, 


CHAPTER   XV. 

FROM  THE   CONSECRATION  OF   BISHOP   HOBART  TO  THE 
DEATH    OF    BISHOP    WHITE  (l  8  I  I-36). 

The  period  which  now  comes  before  us  marks  a  distinct 
advance  in  the  history  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
It  is  distinguished  at  the  outset  by  the  consecration  to  the 
episcopate  of  a  group  of  three  men  who  had  a  formativ^e 
influence  over  its  life  and  character.  In  after-years  the 
church  advanced  by  the  force  of  its  own  characteristics, 
when  once  these  were  more  fully  formed,  more  clearly 
discerned,  and  more  widely  appreciated.  In  this  earlier 
time  its'  growth  was  more  largely  conditioned  by  the 
intellectual  and  moral  power  of  certain  prominent  char- 
acters who  were  its  advocates. 

The  first  group  of  bishops  who  shaped  its  destinies  were 
John  Henry  Hobart,  Alexander  V.  Griswold,  and  Richard 
Channing  Moore.  The  first  two  were  consecrated  together 
in  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  May  29,  181 1  ;  the  latter  in 
St.  James's  Church,  Philadelphia,  May  18,  18 14.  In  their 
respective  dioceses  of  New  York,  New  England,  and  Vir- 
ginia they  simply  reconstructed  the  church  in  tone  and 
character.  Any  one  who  would  understand  its  later  his- 
tory must  study  the  elements  of  it  in  the  acts,  lives,  and 
labors  of  these  men. 

Bishop  Hobart  was  in  intellectual  force  the  greatest  of 
the  three,  and  his  impress  on  the  church  is  more  distinct- 
ive.     He  was  a  marked  character  from   a  boy,  and  was 

410 


JOHN  HENRY  HOBART.  4II 

brought  up  under  the  influence  and  training  of  Bishop 
White  in  Philadelphia,  by  whom  he  was  confirmed  in  his 
fifteenth  year.  Two  years  previously  he  had  entered  the 
College  of  Philadelphia,  when  thirteen  years  of  age.  He 
soon  removed  to  Princeton,  and  graduated  there  in  i793, 
when  eighteen  years  old,  sharing  the  highest  honors  of  his 
class.  Here  he  became  a  tutor  for  a  few  years,  pursuing 
theological  studies  under  the  general  direction  of  Bishop 
White;  and  in  1798  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  and  was 
admitted  deacon  June  3d  of  that  year.  The  friendship 
between  the  youthful  deacon  and  the  mature  bishop  was 
of  the  closest  character.  Much  as  they  differed  in  temper- 
ament and  opinions,  they  were  always  the  fastest  friends. 
Young  Hobart  from  the  start  was  a  favorite  in  the 
church.  His  intellectual  gifts,  his  generous  social  disposi- 
tion, and  his  devotion  to  his  work  early  made  their  mark. 
After  a  few  brief  ministrations  in  small  places  he  was  called 
to  be  assistant  minister  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  in 
September,  1800,  and,  on  taking  the  place,  was  ordained 
priest  by  Bishop  Provoost,  in  1801.  His  life  as  a  parish 
priest  was  active  and  studious.  He  loved  his  books  and 
he  loved  the  souls  of  men.  He  loved  his  church,  and  be- 
lieved in  her  special  claims,  and  advocated  them  with  an 
insistent  fervor  which  drew  to  him  at  once  the  attention  of 
those  without  and  those  within  her  fold.  He  soon  became 
known  as  an  author  of  devotional  books,  the  first  of  which, 
"  The  Companion  for  the  Altar,"  published  in  1804,  treated 
less  of  the  nature  of  the  sacraments  than  of  the  authority 
to  administer  them,  and  of  the  spirit  in  which  they  should 
be  approached.  This  volume  emphasized  his  views  of  the 
church  and  the  ministry,  and  in  its  forms  of  devotion  ex- 
pressed as  well  the  fervor  of  his  soul.  Men  hesitated 
whether  to  call  him  a  Methodist  or  a  High-churchman. 
In  a  sense  he  was  both.      He  believed  in  the  reality  of  a 


412  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH..     [Chap.  xv. 

subjective  religion;  he  believed  as  firmly  that  a  true  in- 
ward experience  could  only  be  rightly  regulated  and  fed 
by  the  divinely  appointed  order  and  sacraments  of  the 
church.  "  The  gospel  in  the  church,"  "  evangelical  truth 
and  apostolic  order,"  phrases  identified  with  his  name,  are 
apt  expressions  of  his  regulative  ideas.  All  his  later  works 
rung  the  changes  upon  them  ;  all  his  ecclesiastical  action 
was  given  to  propagate  and  fortify  them.  He  was  early 
called  into  controversy  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Mason,  the 
great  Presbyterian  divine  of  his  day ;  and  out  of  this  po- 
lemical contest  came,  in  1807,  "  An  Apology  for  Apostolic 
Order  and  its  Advocates,"  which  convinced  his  opponent 
of  his  ability  and  sincerity,  if  not  of  the  validity  of  his  po- 
sition, and  which  called  forth  from  him  this  extraordinary 
expression  of  appreciation :  "  Were  I  compelled  to  intrust 
the  safety  of  my  country  to  any  one  man,  that  man  should 
be  John  Henry  Hobart." 

With  his  zeal  in  parish  work,  his  ardor  in  controversy, 
his  occupations'  as  secretary  of  the  House  of  Bishops  and 
of  the  Diocesan  Convention,  and  as  a  member  of  the  stand- 
ing committee  of  the  diocese,  he  was  kept  alive  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  time.  These  suggested  new  projects. 
He  devoted  himself  to  the  furtherance  of  theological  edu- 
cation, and  his  society  for  that  end  was  the  germ  of  the 
General  Theological  Seminary  of  after  years.  He  became 
editor  of  the  "  Churchman's  Magazine,"  which  he  removed 
from  New  Haven  to  New  York.  He  originated  the  Bible 
and  Common  Prayer-book  Society,  and  was  stanch  in  his 
maintenance  of  the  rights  of  the  church  in  the  corporation 
of  Columbia  College,  of  which  he  was  a  trustee.  He  was, 
in  fine,  an  intense  man  both  in  his  convictions  and  in  his 
measures  to  carry  them  out.  He  aroused  opposition,  but 
he  awakened  respect  and  admiration,  and  personally  con- 
ciliated those  whose  opinions  he  controverted.    When,  then. 


CONSECRATION  OF  HOB  ART.  413 

in  the  spring  of  181 1,  Bishop  Moore  felt  compelled  by  his 
increasing  infirmities  to  call  a  special  Convention  and  ask 
for  an  assistant  bishop,  here  was  the  man  ready  for  the 
place.      He   was  at  once  elected  by  a  majority  of  both 
orders,  and  with  the  heartfelt  approbation  of  his  diocesan. 
At  the  General  Convention  of  181 1,  held  in  New  Haven, 
his   credentials   were   passed;    but  there   were   only  two 
bishops.  White  and  Jarvis,  present,  and  the  consecration 
had  to  be  deferred.     It  seemed  for  a  time  that  the  church 
would  be  subjected  to  the  necessity  of  again  applying  to 
the  English   Church  for  the  episcopate.     Bishop  Moore 
was  incapacitated  by  paralysis.     Bishop  Claggett  was  ill. 
Bi.shop  Madison  pleaded  his  university  duties  as  an  excuse 
for  absence.      Only  Bishop  Provoost  remained  to  make  up 
the   canonical   number  of  consecrators ;    but  he,  too,  was 
feeble  from  recent  illness,  and  his  lack  of  sympathy  with 
the   ardent    nature    and   ecclesiastical    convictions   of   the 
bishop  elect  would,  it  was   feared,  prevent  his   emerging 
from   his   long   retirement  to  assist   at   the  consecration. 
The  exigency  of  the   occasion,  however,  was  sufficiently 
evident  to  move  him  to  act;    and  on   May  29,   181 1,  in 
Trinity  Church,  New  York,  Dr.  Hobart  and  Dr.  Griswold 
were  duly  consecrated.  Bishop  White  acting  as  consecrator, 
and  Bishops  Provoost  and  Jarvis  assisting.     The  consecra- 
tion was  attended  not  only  with  difficulty,  but  also  with 
opposition.     "A  Solemn  Appeal  to  the  Church  "  had  been 
issued  as  a  protest  by  the  Rev.  Lot  Jones,  a  fellow  assistant 
minister  of  Trinity  Church,  which  served  for  some  years 
as  a  firebrand  to  kindle  an  acrimonious  opposition  to  the 
new  prelate.      Bishop  Provoost,  too,  sought  in  18 12  to  re- 
vive his  own  claim  to  jurisdiction,  appealing  to  the  record 
of  the  House  of  Bishops  at  the  time  of  the  consecration  of 
Bishop  Moore,  and  asserting  his  conviction  that  without 
his   concurrence   no    episcopal  act  in  the   diocese  was  of 


414  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

authority.  This  claim  was  immediately  and  emphatically 
disallowed  by  the  New  York  Convention,  and  it  was  not 
further  urged. 

Bishop  Hobart's  episcopate,  thus  begun  in  trial  and  tur- 
moil, was  from  the  beginning  characteristic  of  the  man. 
It  stood  out  in  great  contrast  to  that  of  both  of  his  prede- 
cessors. Their  tone  had  been  that  of  moderation,  the 
moderation  of  indifference  on  the  one  hand  and  of  placid 
piety  on  the  other.  Hobart  was  the  embodiment  of  posi- 
tive assertion  and  aggressive  action.  All  the  ardor  of  his 
soul  went  forth  in  the  incessant  discharge  of  ever-aug- 
menting duties.  He  was  a  larger  Seabury  touched  with 
emotion,  awake  to  the  necessities  and  responsive  to  the 
spirit  of  his  time.  From  the  day  of  his  consecration  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  New  York  never  existed  on  sufferance. 
Its  time  of  apology  was  past.  It  might  be  liked  or  dis- 
liked, opposed  or  favored  ;  but  it  was  henceforth  recognized 
as  an  organization  with  distinct  claims  of  its  own,  and  with 
a  distinct  determination  to  prosecute  them.  It  stood  no 
longer  on  the  defensive.  It  became  self-conscious,  self- 
confident,  and  self-assertive.  Through  Hobart's  touch  it 
was  roused  from  slumber  and  reminiscent  dreams,  and 
stalked  forth  into  active  life,  energetic,  persistent,  and 
aggressi\e.  The  whole  tone  of  public  feeling  toward  it 
changed.  It  was  no  longer  tolerated  as  an  amply  endowed 
institution  too  respectable  to  be  disturbed,  but  too  torpid 
to  be  feared.  It  became  a  living  factor,  dreaded  by  some, 
admired  by  others,  but  acknowledged  and  respected  by  all. 
Whatever  criticism  may  be  passed  on  Bishop  Hobart's 
opinions  or  methods,  this  incalculable  benefit  he  conferred  : 
he  made  the  church  in  New  York  a  living  power.  And 
from  out  this  central  battery  the  electric  current  ran  to 
distant  dioceses,  quickening  life  everywhere.  What  fol- 
lowed was  a  virtual  ecclesiastical  renaissance. 


HOB  ART'S  EPISCOPATE.  415 

There  is  no  space  to  follow  in  detail  the  movements  of 
this  remarkable  man.  His  diocese  extended  more  than 
three  hundred  miles  from  east  to  west;  but  promptness 
and  fidelity  made  him  equal  to  the  task  of  ministering  to 
its  burdensome-  demands.  For  nineteen  years  "  he  ruled 
it  prudently  with  all  his  power."  He  was  too  ardent  to 
be  always  wise ;  and  his  eagerness  to  establish  and  advance 
the  distinguishing  and  determining  tenets  of  his  commun- 
ion led  him  at  times  into  a  narrowness  of  judgment  and 
action  which  gained  him  the  name  of  bigot  and  aroused 
charges  of  intolerance.  He  had  the  defects  of  his  nature. 
"Give  me  a  little  zealous  imprudence"  was  with  him  a 
favorite  phrase.  He  could  suffer  nothing  which  seemed 
to  hinder  or  conflict  with  the  position  he  claimed  for  his 
church.  He  would  not  join  others  even  in  an  object  he 
acknowledged  to  be  good,  lest  that  union  of  action  might 
be  construed  as  yielding  the  supreme  claims  of  his  own 
order.  With  the  American  Bible  Society  he  would  not 
affiliate,  though  he  established  one  of  his  own.  He  wanted 
to  stop  the  prayer-meeting  of  saintly  Dr.  Milnor,  of  St. 
George's  Church,  lest  recognition  of  such  extemporaneous 
devotion  should  disparage  the  more  excellent  way  of  the 
liturgy.  Earnest  in  his  study  and  love  of  the  Scriptures, 
aflame  with  devotion  in  his  soul,  he  could  thus  act  in  seem- 
ing contradiction  to  his  spiritual  convictions.  But  his  jeal- 
ousy for  the  church  was  not  zeal  for  a  perfunctory  mech- 
anism, nor  a  denial  of  all  good  outside  of  its  ecclesiastical 
sphere. 

His  cry  in  advocacy  of  the  church  was,  "  Behold,  I 
show  you  a  more  excellent  way."  A  modern  Parochial 
Mission,  with  its  free  methods,  would  not  then  have  met 
his  approval ;  and  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
he  would  doubtless  have  frowned  upon  as  an  unhallowed 
alliance.      Men  of  his  school  to-day  approve  and  patron- 


41 6  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

ize  both.  The  difiference  lies  in  the  time  and  its  task. 
That  was  the  period  of  formation ;  this  is  the  period  of 
recognized  position.  His  rigidity  in  regard  to  the  episco- 
pate then  seemed  partisan  and  exclusive ;  now  that  epis- 
copate is  cherished  as  an  indispensable  element  of  church 
unity.  The  exclusiveness  of  his  day  is  transformed  into 
the  inclusiveness  of  our  own. 

Bishop  Hobart  was  a  prolific  writer  of  sermons  and 
charges,  and  these  were  able  and  heartfelt ;  but  his 
strength  lay  in  his  organizing  faculty  and  in  the  vitahty 
of  his  spiritual  power.  He  was  the  originator  and  presid- 
ing officer  of  many  societies  for  the  advancement  of  the 
church,  such  as  the  Episcopal  Tract  Society,  Sunday-school 
Society,  Missionary  Society.  He  headed  a  movement  in 
1826  to  shorten  and  in  some  measure  modify  some  of  the 
offices  of  the  Prayer-book,  in  order  to  make  them  more 
efficient  and  in  their  use  more  regular ;  and  he  was  widely 
misconceived  and  soundly  berated  for  the"  attempt  even 
by  those  who  usually  acted  with  him.  He  had,  however, 
the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and,  in  whatever  he  did,  he 
had  an  eye  single  to  the  advancement  of  the  church ;  an  eye 
clearer  in  its  vision  than  that  of  many  who  rejected  meas- 
ures now  everywhere  conceded  wise,  but  then  beyond  the 
ken  of  minds  less  unobstructive  than  his  own.  His  diocese 
grew  apace  under  his  ardent  administration.  The  twenty- 
eight  clergymen  at  the  time  of  his  election  had  by  18 16, 
the  date  of  Bishop  Moore's  death,  increased  to  thirty-six ; 
and  at  his  own  decease,  in  1830,  the  clergy  list  numbered 
one  hundred  and  twenty-seven.  The  numerical  increase 
of  clergymen  and  parishes  was  not  the  chief  gain.  That 
lay  in  the  larger  and  intenser  spirit  which  he  aroused  in  men 
of  all  parties  in  his  diocese.  He  was  earnest  in  missionary 
enterprises.  He  sent  the  gospel  to  the  Oneida  Indians  in 
the  western  portion  of  the  State,  and  in  18 18  made  them 


DEATH  OF  BISHOP  HOB  ART.  417 

a  personal  visitation  and  confirmed  eighty-nine  souls.  He 
subsequently  ordained  Rev.  Eleazar  Williams,  supposed  then 
to  be  of  Indian  extraction,  and  who  afterward  claimed  to 
be  the  Dauphin  Louis  XVII.,  to  be  their  minister.  When 
this  missionary  and  many  of  his  people  were  transferred 
to  Green  Bay,  Wis.,  Bishop  Hobart  made  an  effort  to  visit 
them  there ;  and  his  movements  awakened  the  church  to 
the  need  of  missionary  effort  in  what  was  then  considered 
the  far  West. 

When  the  General  Theological  Seminary  finally  settled 
in  New  York  he  accepted  the  professorship  of  pastoral  the- 
ology in  that  institution ;  and  the  effect  of  his  uncompro- 
mising ardor  was  strongly  felt  by  his  pupils,  one  of  whom, 
Whittingham,  afterward  the  distinguished  Bishop  of  Mary- 
land, said,  "  For  few  of  God's  many  blessings  have  I  so 
much  reason  to  be  so  supremely  grateful  as  for  the  day 
that  brought  me  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Hobart."  Such  was 
the  man  who  made  a  marked  impression  on  the  church  of 
his  day.  His  whole  life  was  an  illustration  of  his  latest 
words  to  his  family.  When  starting  on  the  final  visitation, 
which  ended  in  his  death  at  Auburn,  September  12,  1830, 
his  wife  urged  upon  him  caution,  saying,  "  You  are  under- 
taking too  much;"  and  his  answer  was,  "  How  can  I  do 
too  much  for  Him  who  has  done  everything  for  me?" 
It  was  this  consecration  of  soul  which  gave  to  his  life  its 
greatness  and  enduring  power. 

Bishop  Griswold,  who  was  consecrated  at  the  same  time 
with  him  as  Bishop  of  the  Eastern  Diocese,  was  a  man  of 
different  temperament  and  churchmanship  from  Hobart, 
but  of  as  marked  and  influential  a  character.  He  was  a 
type  of  the  Evangelical  Low-churchman,  though  he  had 
been  trained  by  his  uncle,  Rev.  Roger  Viets,  missionary  at 
Simsbury,  Conn.,  who  had  been  converted  to  the  church 
while  a  student  at  Yale  College,  from  studying  books  on 


41 8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

the  church  in  the  college  library.  His  father's  losses  as  a 
loyalist  in  the  Revolution  rendered  it  impossible  for  him 
to  graduate  at  Yale  as  he  desired ;  but  he  was  thoroughly 
trained  by  his  uncle,  and  was  studious  and  unusually  apt 
at  acquiring  knowledge.  The  moral  and  religious  train- 
ing of  his  mother  made  him  devout  and  earnest  in  religion 
from  an  early  age.  His  religious  experience  was  never 
tumultuous,  but  his  faith  quietly  penetrated  his  life  and 
molded  his  whole  moral  organization.  Like  Hobart,  the 
Puritan  strain  in  his  blood  was  manifest  in  the  persistent 
intensity  of  his  spiritual  nature. 

His  uncle  moving  to  Nova  Scotia  after  the  Revolution, 
young  Griswold  married  and  studied  law,  remaining  in  the 
old  Simsbury  parish.  Here  he  was  confirmed  at  twenty 
years  of  age,  on  Bishop  Seabury's  first  visit  to  the  parish, 
in  1786.  His  services  in  reading  prayers  and  sermons 
were  so  acceptable  that  he  was  persuaded  to  take  orders ; 
but  such  was  the  narrowness  of  his  resources  that  he  had 
to  work  with  his  hands  for  the  support  of  his  family  until 
he  could  be  ordained.  As  he  could  not  well  afford  can- 
dles, he  would  stretch  himself  on  the  hearth  and  study  by 
the  firelight  late  into  the  night,  after  a  day  of  toil  in  the 
fields. 

He  was  made  deacon  at  Stratford  in  June,  1795,  and 
ordained  priest  in  October  of  the  same  year  at  Plym- 
outh, at  the  last  ordination  held  by  Bishop  Seabury. 
Already  he  had  served,  while  a  candidate,  three  small 
parishes  in  Litchfield  township,  and  he  continued  with 
them  ten  years,  often  teaching  a  district  school  in  winter, 
and  in  summer  serving  as  a  day-laborer  among  his  parish- 
ioners to  eke  out  his  support.  After  rejecting  two  calls  to 
Bristol,  R.  I.,  he  finally  accepted  a  third  and  removed 
thither  in  1804,  becoming  rector  of  St.  Michael's  Church. 
His  spiritual  nature  seems  to  have  been  deepened  by  this 


THE  EASTERN  DIOCESE,  419 

change.  His  preaching  dwelt  less  on  matters  of  ecclesi- 
astical controversy,  and  assumed  a  more  strongly  evan- 
gelical type.  He  at  once  became  a  power  in  the  town,  a 
favorite  with  those  without  his  church,  and  a  strong  influ- 
ence within  it.  His  church  was  soon  enlarged,  but  not  his 
salary ;  and  to  his  labors  as  rector  he  had  to  add  those  of 
teacher  of  a  select  school.  His  health  suffering  from  three 
sermons  on  Sunday  and  daily  teaching  during  the  week, 
he  was  about  to  accept  a  call  to  St.  Michael's  Church, 
Litchfield,  when,  to  his  surprise,  he  was  elected  Bishop  of 
the  Eastern  Diocese,  May  31,  18 10. 

That  diocese  was  fully  organized  at  a  Convention  held 
in  Boston,  May  29,  18 10,  and  was  formed  by  the  union  of 
the  churches  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  (which  then 
included  the  district  of  Maine)  with  those  in  Rhode  Isl- 
and, New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont.  The  inability  of  the 
churches  in  any  of  these  States  to  support  a  bishop  of 
their  own  compelled  this  course  of  action.  In  the  whole 
Eastern  Diocese  there  were  but  twenty-two  parishes  and 
sixteen  officiating  clergymen.  Most  of  these  parishes  were 
feeble,  many  almost  dead.  The  only  strong  churches  were 
Trinity  in  Boston,  St.  John's  in  Providence,  and  Trinity 
in  Newport.  For  six  years  there  had  been  no  bishop  in 
the  entire  region,  and  those  years  had  been  years  of  de- 
cay and  spiritual  torpor.  The  rising  tide  of  Unitarianism 
had  greatly  affected  the  church  in  Massachusetts,  since 
the  untimely  death  of  Bishop  Parker  in  1804. 

After  Bishop  Seabury's  death  Rhode  Island  had  sought 
to  place  itself  under  Bishop  Moore,  of  New  York ;  but  he 
had  not  felt  able  to  undertake  the  charge,  and  no  further 
efforts  for  the  episcopate  were  made  in  that  State  until  the 
Eastern  Diocese  was  formed.  New  Hampshire,  too,  had, 
on  Bishop  Seabury's  death,  elected  Bishop  Bass,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, to  this  jurisdiction;  but  he' died  a  few  weeks 


420  PROTESTANr  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

after  the  election,  and  nothing  more  was  done.  Vermont 
did  not  really  become  part  of  the  Eastern  Diocese  until 
1 8 19.  It  had  had  a  checkered  history  as  a  diocese.  Its 
Convention  was  only  organized  in  i  790  by  two  clergymen 
and  eighteen  laymen.  In  1 793  Dr.  Bass  was  elected 
bishop,  and  accepted  the  office  conditionally  ;  but  a  special 
Convention  held  in  1 794,  composed  of  but  nine  out  of 
twenty-four  nominal  parishes,  disregarding  this  action,  chose 
the  notorious  Dr.  Samuel  Peters  as  bishop.  Confirmation 
of  this  election  was  refused  by  the  General  Convention. 

This  movement  seems  to  have  been  made  in  the  interest 
of  a  land  speculation  pertaining  to  the  glebe-lands  earlier 
apportioned  by  the  English  government,  through  Gov- 
ernor Wentworth,  to  the  church  and  the  Venerable  Society. 
These  lands  it  was  hoped  would  prove  very  remunerative 
to  the  church  and  to  those  who  might  help  to  recover 
them.  The  real  spiritual  ministrations  of  the  church  appear 
to  have  been  largely  dependent  during  this  period  on  the 
devotion  of  Mr.  Bethuel  Chittenden,  a  man  of  great  abil- 
ity, who  with  his  brother  had  emigrated  from  Connecticut, 
and,  perceiving  the  spiritual  destitution,  had,  when  forty- 
nine  years  old,  presented  himself  to  Bishop  Seabury,  and 
been  made  deacon  at  St.  John's  Church,  Stamford,  in  i  787. 
After  he  was  ordained  priest  in  1 794,  by  Bishop  Seabury, 
in  his  own  Church  of  St.  James  at  New  London,  he  be- 
came the  most  prominent  man  in  church  councils  in  the 
State,  and  did  well  the  work  of  an  evangelist.  He  died 
in  1808,  before  the  Eastern  Diocese  was  formed;  but  he 
was  largely  instrumental  in  preserving  what  there  was  of 
the  church  for  Bishop  Griswold  to  take  hold  of.  Bishop 
Moore,  of  New  York,  had  been  requested  by  the  Ver- 
mont Convention  in  1805  to  take  the  church  in  the  State 
under  his  episcopal  care,  with  a  view  to  securing  pos- 
session of  the  church   lands.      He  had  consented  on  the 


BISHOP  GRISIVOLD.  42  I 

express  understanding  that  he  should  not  be  expected  to 
visit  the  State. 

Such,  then,  was  the  condition  of  the  extended  district  to 
whose  episcopal  supervision  Bishop  Griswold  was  elected. 
At  first  he  utterly  declined  the  office,  feeling  himself  in- 
adequate ;  but  the  difficulties  of  the  situation  appealed  to 
him,  and,  urged  by  others,  he  finally  accepted.  A  year 
from  the  date  of  his  election  he  was  consecrated,  together 
with  Bishop  Hobart  (May  29,  181 1),  by  Bishop  White,  in 
Trinity  Church,  New  York.  He  was  then  forty-five  years 
of  age,  ten  years  older  than  Hobart,  having  been  born  in 
1 766.  His  health  was  never  strong,  but  he  was  in  the 
full  maturity  of  his  powers,  and  he  began  his  work  with  a 
zeal  which  never  flagged.  It  was  an  arduous  and  difficult 
task.  To  secure  sufficient  support  he  retained  his  position 
as  rector  of  St.  Michael's  in  Bristol  until  1830,  when,  in 
order  to  be  nearer  the  center  of  his  diocese,  he  became 
rector  of  St.  Peter's,  Salem,  Mass.  Not  until  1835,  when 
he  was  sixty-nine  years  of  age,  did  he  retire  from  parish 
duties  and  confine  himself  wholly  to  the  duties  of  the 
episcopate.  Those  duties  he  always  most  faithfully  ful- 
filled. 

His  first  effort  was  to  rekindle  the  fires  of  spiritual  life, 
which  were  merely  smoldering  in  many  places.  He  was 
set  to  harmonize  discordant  elements  of  church  life  w'hich 
were  bitter  by  reason  of  their  unreasonableness.  He  had 
to  administer  discipline  too  long  delayed.  Like  Hobart, 
he  must  create  the  church  anew,  only  out  of  elements  far 
more  hopeless  and  decayed,  far  more  widely  scattered  and 
impoverished.  The  formidable  nature  of  his  task  deep- 
ened his  spiritual  intensity.  A  very  marked  attention  to 
religion  was  awakened,  the  year  after  his  consecration,  in 
his  parish  church  at  Bristol,  R.  I.  It  came  apart  from  any 
special  measures  used  to  excite  it ;   only,  as  he  writes  in 


422  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

his  "Autobiography,"  "  My  recent  ordination  to  the  epis- 
copate was  the  means  of  awakening  my  own  mind  to  more 
serious  thoughts  of  duty  as  a  minister  of  Christ; -and  in 
consequence  I  had,  no  doubt,  with  more  earnest  zeal 
preached  'Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified.'  "  The  awak- 
ening spread  through  the  whole  town.  It  was  attended 
by  no  extravagance ;  and  the  result  was  the  addition  of  a 
hundred  communicants  to  his  small  flock  of  forty,  and  a 
great  deepening  of  its  religious  life.  These  scenes  of 
spiritual  interest  spread  through  the  diocese.  He  could 
report,  the  year  after  his  consecration,  twelve  hundred 
confirmations,  and  an  increase  not  only  in  numbers,  but 
in  attention  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  church. 
This  was  the  history  of  his  episcopate  throughout.  He 
lived  to  see  the  scanty  score  of  feeble  and  scattered  par- 
ishes which  constituted  his  jurisdiction  at  the  beginning 
multiplied  nearly  fivefold,  and  distributed  into  five  fully 
organized  dioceses,  able  to  support  four  bishops,  instead 
of  employing  one  whom  they  could  not  support. 

Nor  was  his  interest  wholly  confined  to  his  own  diocese, 
though  it  was  centered  there.  A  pastoral  letter  sent  out 
in  1 8 14  was  among  the  chief  means  of  awakening  the 
whole  church  to  its  duty  in  missionary  efforts,  and  in  secur- 
ing the  interest  which  resulted  for  the  formation  of  its  mis- 
sionary organization.  The  first  foreign  missionary  ever 
sent  out  by  the  church  was  nominated  by  him.  He  made 
great  efforts  to  multiply  the  copies  and  increase  the  circu- 
lation of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  he  was  wont 
to  declare  was  "second  only  to  the  Bible  in  its  utility." 
"  This  is  the  best  gift  you  can  send  after  the  Word  of  God 
and  his  ministers,"  he  told  his  Convention.  Never  would 
he  give  up  seemingly  lost  ground.  To  a  proposition  to 
sell  a  church  in  a  decayed  parish  to  the  Congregationahsts 
he  answered,  "  I  can  never  indorse  or  consent  to  such  a 


LABORS   OF  GRISWOLD.  423 

measure."  In  places  where  there  was  no  church  he  held 
services  in  the  groves,  and  gathered  to  confirmation  many 
scores  from  these  wayside  hearers.  In  northern  Vermont, 
in  western  Massachusetts  among  the  Berkshires,  in  the 
wildernesses  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire,  he  repeated 
the  Apostle's  experience,  "  In  weariness  and  painfulness,  in 
watchings  often.  .  .  .  Besides  those  things  that  are  with- 
out, that  which  cometh  upon  me  daily,  the  care  of  all  the 
churches."  "Who  shall  satisfy  these  men  with  bread 
here  in  the  wilderness?"  he  was  ever  asking,  as,  like  his 
Master,  he  "  looked  on  the  multitude,  and  had  compassion 
upon  them."  He  always  placed  the  chief  emphasis  upon 
personal  religion,  while  claiming  for  the  church  the  office 
of  its  safe  guide  and  educator.  Thus  it  came  to  pass,  in 
favorable  contrast  to  past  times,  that  in  less  than  thirty 
years  the  Eastern  Diocese,  once  made  necessary  for  the  con- 
servation and  propagation  of  religion  as  the  church  under- 
stood and  embodied  it,  had  so  vivified  the  region  which  it 
embraced  that,  in  order  to  secure  sufficient  ministrations 
for  the  growing  churches  and  congregations  of  its  vast 
area,  its  dissolution  became  as  imperative  as  its  formation 
had  once  been. 

In  the  midst  of  his  self-forgetful  labors  Griswold  had  at 
last  outlived  his  contemporaries,  and  in  1838  he  became  the 
senior  and  presiding  bishop  of  the  church.  In  this  capac- 
ity he  was  brought  in  contact,  through  active  correspond- 
ence, with  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  the  English, 
Scotch,  and  Irish  churches ;  and  the  old  esteem  in  which 
he  had  been  held  by  the  Church  Missionary  Society  was 
now  enlarged  by  this  wider  association.  He  grew  in  honor 
as  he  advanced  in  years.  His  last  act  of  ordination  was 
that  held  in  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  December  29,  1842, 
when  he  consecrated  the  Rev.  Manton  Eastburn,  D.D.,  of 
New  York,  to  be  his  helper  as  assistant  Bishop  of  Massa- 


424  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

chusetts.  Not  two  months  afterward,  on  February  ii, 
1843,  he  walked  through  the  snow  to  call  on  his  coadjutor, 
and,  as  he  reached  the  door,  fell  dead  upon  the  step.  Like 
Bishop  Seabury,  who  confirmed  and  ordained  him,  he  did 
not  dread  a  sudden  death,  and,  like  him,  he  shared  it.  He 
fell  amid  his  labors,  seventy-seven  years  of  age,  having  in 
an  episcopate  of  thirty- two  years  recreated  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  all  New  England  outside  of  Connecticut.  He 
was  a  saintly  character,  and  was  "  in  labors  more  abundant." 

We  turn  now  to  the  episcopate  of  the  Rev.  Richard 
Channing  Moore,  which,  for  Virginia  and  the  South,  was 
as  epoch-making  as  that  of  Bishop  Hobart  in  New  York 
and  Bishop  Griswold  in  New  England.  Here,  again,  was 
a  man  eminently  suited  to  the  place.  Though  from  New 
York,  he  had  traits  specially  adapted  to  Virginia.  He 
was  of  gentle  blood,  being  descended  from  Sir  John  Moore, 
who  was  knighted  b}-  Charles  I.  in  1627.  His  grandfather 
was  an  eminent  merchant  of  New  York,  and  a  member 
of  the  king's  council  for  the  province,  and  was  the  first 
person  buried  in  Trinity  Churchyard  (1749).  His  father 
was  educated  in  England,  and  his  mother  was  Elizabeth 
Channing,  of  a  prominent  family.  The  future  bishop  was 
born  in  New  York,  i  762.  He  was  bred  for  King's  Col- 
lege ;  but  the  Revolution  prevented  his  entering  it,  and 
after  the  war  he  studied  and  practiced  medicine  for  a  few 
years.  Becoming  earnestly  religious,  he  studied  for  orders 
under  the  general  direction  of  Bishop  Provoost,  and  was 
ordained  deacon  and  priest  by  him  in  1787,  being  twenty- 
five  years  old.  As  the  High-church  Hobart  was  trained 
under  the  moderate  Bishop  White,  and  the  Low-church 
Griswold  came  from  the  hands  of  the  High-church  Bishop 
Seabury,  so  the  intensely  Evangelical  Moore  received  his 
guidance  into  the  church  from  the  latitudinarian  Provoost. 

He  was  adapted  to  the  South  both  by  the  nature  of  his 


RICHARD    CHANNING  MOORE.  425 

religious  convictions  and  by  his  genial  social  temperament 
and  personal  charm.  He  was  persona  grata  always  and 
everywhere.  His  conversation  was  spiced  with  a  fund  of 
anecdote,  and  his  amiable  disposition  brought  him  hosts 
of  friends.  And  all  his  native  gifts  were  made  the  vehicle 
for  a  fervent  presentation  of  those  features  and  facts  of  the 
gospel  which  especially  appeal  to  the  personal  conscience 
and  win  the  individual  soul.  In  a  good  sense  he  was  a 
revivalist,  delighting  to  improve  times  of  special  religious 
interest  by  more  frequent  services  and  more  direct  preach- 
ing, and  by  that  intense  earnestness  of  Appeal  and  prayer 
which  cannot  healthfully  be  continuous.  But  he  discoun- 
tenanced mourners'  benches  and  the  various  devices  which 
have  been  commonly  associated  with  such  times  of  special 
awakening.  He  was  emotional,  but  kept  a  check  on  his 
feelings.  He  was  very  direct  in  his  charge  to  the  sinful ; 
but  he  loved  to  dwell  on  the  promises  of  God,  and  lure 
men  rather  than  drive  them  home  to  Christ.  He  had, 
moreover,  that  personal  magnetism  which  drew  and  fixed 
attention,  and  a  persuasive  eloquence  which  made  his 
speech  rarely  effective.  His  manner  was  animated  and 
pathetic,  and  his  voice  full  of  charm.  His  heart  overflowed 
with  charity  to  all  Christian  people.  He  was  in  all  things 
a  gentleman,  the  very  man  to  fire  the  Southern  heart. 

How  he  came  to  Virginia  we  shall  now  relate.  After 
passing  the  first  two  years  of  his  ministry  at  Rye,  he 
became  the  rector  of  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Staten  Island, 
in  1789,  and  continued  there  for  twenty-one  years.  It 
was  a  ministry  of  wonderful  success.  The  bounds  of  his 
parish  were  enlarged,  the  communicants  largely  increased, 
the  standard  of  Christian  character  greatly  elevated. 
Numbers  flocked  to  his  ministry  from  far  and  near,  so  that 
there  was  no  accommodation  at  the  parish  church,  and  a 
chapel  of  ease  had  to  be  built  six  miles  distant  from  it.    The 


426  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.      [Chap.  xv. 

following  incident  illustrates  his  unique  hold  upon  his 
hearers : 

"  He  had  been  preaching  at  one  of  his  usual  stations  in 
the  afternoon,  and,  the  ordinary  closing  devotions  being 
ended,  pronounced  the  benediction.  But  not  a  person 
moved  to  retire.  All  seated  themselves  in  the  attitude 
of  fixed  and  solemn  attention.  A  member  of  the  church 
arost  and  said,  '  Dr.  Moore,  the  peojDle  are  not  disposed 
to  go  home.  Please  to  give  us  another  sermon.'  At  the 
close  of  that  a  like  scene  was  repeated.  And  the  services 
were  continued,  until,  at  the  close  of  a  tJiird  sermon,  the 
preacher  was  obliged  to  say,  '  My  beloved  people,  you 
must  now  disperse,  for,  although  I  delight  to  proclaim  the 
glad  tidings  of  salvation,  my  strength  is  exhausted  and 
I  can  say  no  more.'  Under  these  sermons  many  were 
awakened  to  righteousness.  It  was  the  commencement  of 
a  glorious  revival  of  religion,  as  the  fruits  of  which  sixty 
new-born  souls  were  added  to  the  communion  of  the  faith- 
ful." i 

It  was  during  this  ministry  at  Staten  Island  that  Dr. 
Moore  attended  as  a  deputy  the  General  Convention  of 
1808,  held  at  Baltimore.  This  was  his  first  acquaintance 
with  the  South.  He  preached  in  the  Baltimore  churches, 
and  in  consequence  was  twice  called  to  St.  Paul's,  the  mother- 
parish  of  the  city,  which  invitations  he  declined.  He  so 
greatly  aiffected  the  Convention  by  his  reading  of  the  new 
hymns  which  were  proposed  for  adoption  that  an  opponent 
of  the  measure  protested,  saying,  "  I  object  to  the  hymns 
being  read  by  that  gentleman,  for  we  are  so  fascinated  by 
his  style  of  reading  that  we  shall  without  hesitation  adopt 
them  all."  Thus  it  was  that  Dr.  Moore  became  known  to 
Virginia  while  yet  busy  with  his  island  parish  ;  preparing 
unconsciously  for  his  future  bishopric  by  scouring  the 
1  See  Henshaw's  "  Memoir  of  Bishop  R.  C.  Moore,"  p.  66. 


MOORE  ELECTED  BISHOP.  427 

island,  preaching  in  school-houses  and  farm-houses  on 
week-days,  and  three  times  at  his  different  stations  on 
Sundays. 

He  was  called  to  St.  Stephen's  Church,  New  York,  in 
1809,  and  went,  leaving  his  son  behind  him  as  rector  of 
St.  Andrew's.  Here  he  stayed  five  years,  finding  a  small 
congregation  and  thirty  communicants,  and  leaving  a 
church  crowded  to  overflowing,  and  with  between  four 
and  five  hundred  communicants.  There  were  differences 
of  views  and  usages  which  kept  him  awhile  apart  from 
Hobart,  both  as  rector  and  bishop ;  but  they  were  both  too 
much  akin  in  their  spiritual  fervor  not  to  come  to  under- 
stand and  appreciate  each  other.  Thus  it  came  about  that, 
when  Dr.  Moore  was  elevated  to  the  episcopate  of  Virginia, 
Bishop  Hobart  wrote  a  letter  strongly  indorsing  him. 

He  was  elected  bishop  in  18 14.  To  secure  his  support 
as  bishop  he  was  also  chosen  rector  of  the  Monumental 
Church  in  Richmond.  As  before  related,  only  seven 
clergymen  and  eighteen  laymen  constituted  the  special 
Convention  which  made  the  election.  We  need  not  here 
repeat  what  has  been  already  said  concerning  the  low  con- 
dition of  the  church  in  Virginia  at  this  time.  The  paucity 
of  clergy  had  had,  however,  one  good  effect.  It  had 
stirred  to  greater  earnestness  those  who  remained.  Among 
them  were  four  very  marked  men.  They  were  Wilmer  of 
Fairfax,  Norris  of  Alexandria,  Dunn  of  Loudon  County, 
and,  chiefest,  William  Meade,  afterward  assistant  to  Bishop 
Moore,  and  his  honored  successor.  These  had  carefully 
studied  the  character  of  Moore,  and  stood  ready  to  pledge 
him  their  unfaltering  support.  Moore  knew  the  unprom- 
ising nature  of  the  field,  more  desolate  and  discouraging, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  portion  of  the  church's  domain. 
He  felt  a  strong  and  clinging  affection  for  the  parish  he 
had  so  ably  built  up,  and  for  the  life  of  the  community  in 


428  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

which  he  was  a  distinct  power.  But  he  also  saw  the  need 
of  Virginia,  and  felt  in  touch  with  the  devout  remnant  of 
its  people.  He  thought  he  knew  the  remedy  for  their 
misfortunes :  that  it  lay  in  the  earnest  presentation  of  the 
gospel  truths  he  loved  and  lived  by,  and  in  the  methods 
which  he  employed.  And  so  he  went  forth  from  home 
and  kindred,  scarcely  knowing  whither  he  went,  but  be- 
lieving that  God  called  him.  The  event  proved  that  he 
was  not  mistaken. 

He  was  consecrated  by  Bishop- White,  May  i8,  1814,  in 
St.  James's  Church,  Philadelphia;  his  own  bishop,  Hobart, 
together  with  Bishop  Griswold  and  Bishop  Dehon,  of 
South  Carolina,  assisting.  It  was  a  rare  benediction  to 
have  such  saintly  and  earnest  hands  laid  on  such  a  head. 
Its  power  proved  as  genuine  as  its  form. 

The  coming  of  Bishop  Moore  to  Richmond  was  like  the 
coming  of  summer,  the  season  in  which  he  came.  Hope 
sprang  up  at  once  in  the  few  earnest  souls  who  were  alert 
to  restore  the  waste  places.  The  commanding  presence 
and  persuasive  speech  of  the  new  bishop  gained  him  atten- 
tion from  the  start,  and  it  rapidly  deepened  into  admiration 
and  love.  He  earnestly  set  to  work  to  do  all  he  could, 
and  he  could  do  much.  He  was  now  over  fifty  years  old, 
and  his  years  had  been  years  of  exhaustive  labor.  His 
parochial  engagements  and  bodily  infirmities  prevented 
his  visiting  many  parts  of  the  diocese,  and  Bishop.  Meade 
narrates  that  he  never  crossed  the  Alleghany  Mountains, 
though  he  sometimes  visited  North  Carolina,  which  had 
then  no  bishop.  But  wherever  he  went,  life  started  anew 
and  passed  on  and  out  beyond  the  place  where  it  started. 
His  first  Convention  of  181 5  was  attended  by  double  the 
number  of  clergy  present  at  his  election  the  year  before ; 
and  an  increased  lay  representation  gave  evidence  of  new 
life  and  zeal.    The  bishop,  in  his  address,  spoke  hopefully, 


MOORE'S    VIRGINIA    EPISCOPATE.  429 

as  was  his  wont,  and  declared  that  "  in  every  parisli  he  had 
visited  he  found  the  most  animated  wish  of  the  people  to 
restore  the  church  of  their  fathers  to  its  primitive  purity." 
At  once  measures  were  taken  to  restore  discipline,  confined 
at  first  to  grosser  sins,  yet  immediately  raising  the  cry  of 
priestly  usurpation  and  oppression.  The  lawless  declared 
the  clergy  only  wanted  power,  and  that  fire  and  fagot 
would  soon  be  used  again;  that  the  bishop  was  only  estab- 
lishing a  Methodist  Church,  and  that  the  new  church 
needed  reforming  already.^  This  very  opposition  showed 
the  presence  of  a  new  vitality,  and  the  work  of  reformation 
went  steadily  on.  Parishes  seemingly  dead  were  aroused 
to  life  and  vigor.  In  another  year  ten  new  churches  were 
reported  as  about  to  be  built,  while  eight  of  the  old  dilap- 
idated or  deserted  sanctuaries  were  undergoing  repair. 
The  work  of  revival,  development,  and  growth  never 
afterward  ceased.  It  continued  all  through  his  episcopate 
and  that  of  his  coadjutor  and  successor,  Meade,  and 
through  those  of  their  successors. 

When  Bishop  Moore  came  to  his  diocese  there  were 
only  four  or  five  active  laboring  ministers.  When,  after 
twenty-seven  years,  he  died,  there  were  nearly  a  hundred 
earnest  and  devoted  clergy,  and  a  hundred  and  seventy 
churches  served  by  them.  He  made  and  kept  his  clergy 
devoted  by  friendly  intercourse,  by  unfailing  interest  in 
their  work,  and  by  faithful  admonition.  The  tendency  to 
slight  the  liturgy,  hitherto  used  so  formally,  which  at  times 
cropped  out  amid  the  renewed  zeal  for  spiritual  results, 
was  always  noticed  and  restrained.  He  had  a  great  love 
for  associations  for  informal  devotion,  for  lecture-room 
services  and  prayer-meetings ;  but  he  never  suffered  them 
to  be  regarded  as  substitutes  for  the  regular  public  devo- 
tions of  the  Prayer-book,  nor  esteemed  as  superior  to  them. 

1  See  Meade,  "  Old  Churches  and  Families  of  Virginia,"  vol.  i.,  p.  39. 


43 O  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

At  the  annual  Conventions  of  the  diocese  there  were 
meetings  preceding  and  succeeding  its  sessions,  to  which 
he  summoned  as  many  as  possible  of  the  church  families 
of  the  neighborhood,  and  which  were  centers  of  great  re- 
ligious influence.  Fervent  preaching  and  earnest  prayers 
characterized  them ;  and  the  bishop  regarded  these  as- 
sociations so  called  as  a  chief  means  of  stimulating  devo- 
tion in  both  clergy  and  laity.  They  associated  the  legis- 
lation of  the  church  with  its  life,  and  gave  to  its  routine 
business  a  religious  tone  and  meaning.  These  devotional 
meetings  during  Convention  were  supplemented  by  asso- 
ciations of  more  frequent  occurrence  in  special  districts, 
where  the  same  measures  were  used  to  arouse  and  keep 
alive  the  religious  life  of  the  neighborhood.  The  utter 
contrast  of  all  this  to  the  old  life,  or  lack  of  it,  indicated  a 
complete  renovation  of  the  church.  Communicants  were 
urged  to  abstain  from  worldly  amusements,  and  a  stricter 
personal  discipline  was  inculcated  than  has  usually  char- 
acterized the  communion. 

The  liturgy,  however,  was  duly  prized.  There  was,  in 
fact,  in  Bishop  Moore  an  ultra-conservatism  in  regard  to 
it.  Mistaking  the  object  of  Bishop  Hobart's  movement 
in  1823  for  shortening  the  Morning  Prayer  in  order  to 
secure  the  constant  use  of  the  Antecommunion  Office, 
he  opposed  it  sturdily.  "The  church  in  Virginia,"  he 
said,  "  will  never  be  induced,  I  trust  and  pra)^,  to  depart 
from  her  prescribed  forms,  but  will  defend  the  liturgy  in 
its  integrity.  To  alter  a  service  of  such  acknowledged 
worth,  without  years  of  prayerful  consideration,  should 
not  be  ventured  on."  He  was  also  more  stringent  than 
most  of  his  day  in  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  the  sacra- 
ments, defending  baptismal  regeneration  against  the  Cal- 
vinistic  doctrine  of  the  indefectibility  of  grace,  and  declar- 
ing of  the  Lord's  Supper,  "  In  a  way  we  cannot  perfectly 


HIS  ECCLESIASTICAL   POSITION.  431 

explain,  God  is  pleased  to  make  the  ordinances  of  his  re- 
ligion the  channels  of  his  love  to  man.  We  perform  our 
duty  in  obeying  that  precept  which  leads  us  to  the  altar. 
God  strengthens  us  by  his  inward  grace  imparted  to  us." 
He  was  very  earnest,  however,  in  emphatic  protest  against 
the  "Tracts  for  the  Times,"  and  rejoiced  in  Bishop 
Mcllvaine's  criticism  of  the  Oxford  Movement.  He  was 
stanch  in  his  belief  in  and  love  for  the  church  of  his 
fathers,  while  he  cherished  a  spirit  of  forbearance  and 
charity  toward  the  followers  of  Christ  of  every  name. 
Thus  he  was  for  many  years  the  president  of  the  Bible 
Society  of  Virginia.  "  Could  a  Prayer-book  accompany 
every  volume  of  the  Sacred  Writings  I  should  be  rejoiced," 
he  said  in  a  letter  to  Bishop  Ravenscroft ;  **  but  as  that 
was  not  the  case  when  the  Scriptures  were  first  given  to 
the  world,  I  cannot  see  the  propriety  of  making  it  a  con- 
dition of  their  dissemination  at  the  present  day." 

Such  was  the  spirit  and  course  of  his  episcopate.  The 
wants  of  his  own  communion  he  was  neither  slow  to  de- 
scry nor  slack  to  remedy.  He  urged  strongly  the  duty  of 
systematic  giving;  and,  if  he  did  not  institute  the  weekly 
offertory,  he  at  least  exhorted  every  churchman  "  to  lay 
aside  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  a  portion  of  his  earnings 
to  be  sacredly  devoted  to  the  cause  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence." He  felt  the  crying  need  of  earnest  ministers, 
cognizant  of  the  special  wants  of  his  diocese,  and  was 
greatly  instrumental  in  instituting  the  Virginia  Theological 
Seminary  in  order  to  supply  them.  This  was  not  done  in 
opposition  to  the  General  Seminary  in  New  York,  but  to 
gain  what  that  could  not  give  him.  And  he  was  mindful 
of  the  wants  of  his  clerg)^  when  he  got  them,  and  strenu- 
ously pleaded  for  their  more  adequate  support,  urging  the 
formation  of  a  missionary  fund  for  their  relief.  He  called 
attention    to    the   claims   of  the   Prayer-book  and   Tract 


432  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  w. 

Society,  and  recommended  the  formation  of  auxiliaries  to 
it  in  all  the  parishes.  He  encouraged  the  publication  of 
the  "  Southern  Churchman,"  a  weekly  religious  paper,  and 
desired  that  the  editor  would  "  feel  himself  bound  to  in- 
culcate and  faithfully  to  guard  the  distinctive  principles  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  without  wantonly  assail- 
ing the  principles  of  other  Christian  communities,  and 
to  avoid  controversy  when  controversy  can  possibly  be 
avoided." 

Thus  he  labored  on  until  his  eightieth  year,  taking  many 
journeys  of  great  extent,  and,  though  after  1829  relieved 
by  the  assistance  of  his  coadjutor,  Bishop  Meade,  daily 
employed  in  the  public  duties  of  his  office.  At  every 
succeeding  Convention  the  parochial  reports  showed  dis- 
tinct progress  in  the  church.  He  saw  his  beloved  Theo- 
logical Seminary  growing  in  strength  and  sending  forth 
laborers  into  the  vineyard.  He  experienced  the  warmest 
reception  of  himself,  and  recognition  of  his  work,  in  other 
dioceses ;  and  in  Baltimore  as  in  New  York  he  received 
almost  an  ovation  at  times  after  his  powerful  preaching. 
His  last  speech  in  the  General  Convention  of  1841  was  in 
advocacy  of  sending  missionary  bishops  to  Texas  and 
western  Africa;  for  his  interest  in  Christ's  church  was  as 
wide  as  it  was  deep.  He  returned  home  before  the  Con- 
vention adjourned,  preached  at  a  funeral  in  Richmond  with 
a  fervor  so  extraordinary  as  to  excite  the  remark,  "  Surely 
this  must  be  his  last  message  to  Richmond,"  and  then  went 
on  to  Lynchburg  to  hold  a  confirmation.  After  a  stirring 
address  at  night  to  a  congregation  moved  to  tears  by  his 
earnest  eloquence,  he  repaired  to  the  rectory,  which  he 
never  left  alive.  He  was  taken  ill  that  night  and  died  after 
a  week's  sickness,  with  the  composure  and  peace  of  a  Chris- 
tian warrior  lying  down  to  rest.  Though  nearly  eighty 
years  old,  like  Hobart,  he  died  on  a  visitation  away  from 


OTHER  BISHOPS.  433 

home.  Like  him,  he  left  a  diocese  so  reconstructed 
through  his  labors  and  by  his  spirit  as  to  make  it  a  perpet- 
ual witness  to  his  power  and  goodness.  He  was  a  man 
of  great  popular  gifts ;  but  as  with  his  two  distinguished 
contemporaries,  Hobart  and  Griswold,  it  was  the  spiritual 
consecration  of  the  man  to  his  Master  which  gave  him  the 
commanding  influence  he  exercised  upon  the  life  and  for- 
tunes of  the  church. 

These  three  bishops  whose  careers  have  been  sketched 
were  typical  of  the  church  history  of  their  time.  The 
spirit  in  which  they  wrought  furnished  the  recreative  power 
of  the  Episcopal  Church.  That  spirit  was  by  no  means 
wholly  confined  to  them.  It  was  manifest  in  other  quar- 
ters, and  by  many  in  other  orders  of  the  ministry,  who 
labored  under  them,  even  to  mention  whom  the  time 
would  fail  us.  Already  before  the  consecration  of  Bishop 
Moore,  of  Virginia,  Dr.  Theodore  Dehon,  who  had  been 
the  successful  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Newport,  and  after- 
ward for  seven  years  rector  of  St.  Michael's,  Charleston, 
was  elected  and  consecrated  Bishop  of  South  Carolina  in 
1 8 12.  His  short  episcopate  of  five  years  gave  stability  and 
increase  to  the  Southern  church.  Dr.  James  Kemp  in 
1 8 14  was  made  coadjutor  to  Bishop  Claggett,  of  Maryland, 
in  special  charge  of  the  churches  on  the  Eastern  Shore,  and 
in  1 8 16  succeeded  to  the  charge  of  the  whole  diocese. 
Through  many  troublous  scenes  he  safely  guided  the 
church  until  1827,  when  he  died.  New  Jersey  at  last,  in 
18 1 5,  roused  itself  from  its  lethargy,  and  elected  Dr.  John 
Croes  for  its  first  bishop  ;  and  he  for  seventeen  years  ruled 
the  diocese  faithfully  in  the  meekness  of  wisdom.  Bishop 
Bowen  succeeded  Bishop  Dehon  in  South  Carolina  in  1818  ; 
and  in  18 19  Bishop  Brownell  succeeded  Bishop  Jarvis  after 
an  interval  of  six  years  in  the  episcopate  of  Connecticut. 

During  this  time  the  records  of  the  General  Convention 


434  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

manifest  and  reflect  the  spirit  rekindled  in  the  dioceses. 
The  attendance  was  notably  larger,  and  attention  was  given 
in  various  ways  to  the  discipline  and  worship  of  the  church, 
aiming  to  make  it  more  earnestly  devout.  Warnings 
against  worldliness  came  from  the  House  of  Bishops,  and 
new  hymns  were  provided  for  the  expression  of  the  life 
awakened  throughout  the  communion.  In  order  to  meet 
questions  concerning  the  possession  of  church  property  in 
some  quarters,  the  declaration  concerning  the  identity  of 
"  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  with  the  body  hereto- 
fore known  in  these  States  by  the  name  of  the  Church  of 
England"  was  passed  by  both  houses  in  1814.  In  this  it 
is  said :  "  The  church  conceives  of  herself  as  professing 
and  acting  on  the  principles  of  the  Church  of  England ; 
but  it  would  be  contrary  to  the  fact  were  any  one  to  infer 
that  the  discipline  exercised  in  this  church,  or  that  any 
proceedings  therein,  are  at  all  dependent  on  the  will  of  the 
civil  or  of  the  ecclesiastical  authority  of  any  foreign  coun- 
try." Attention  also  was  directed  in  181 7  to  organizing 
the  new  Western  States  into  dioceses,  moved  thereto  by 
the  report  from  Ohio  of  the  existence  of  nineteen  organized 
parishes  in  that  State.  Everywhere  save  in  Delaware  the 
situation  seemed  to  be  full  of  encouragement;  and  by  1820 
the  church  is  reported  as  organized,  though  not  supplied 
with  bishops,  in  all  the  original  thirteen  States. 

The  most  significant  consecration  of  a  bishop  at  this 
juncture  was  that  of  the  Rev.  Philander  Chase  in  18 19. 
He  was  the  pioneer  bishop  of  the  West,  and  by  his  varied 
and  energetic  and  untiring  efforts  did  more  than  any  other 
man  of  the  period  to  redeem  the  neglect  by  the  church  of 
the  horde  of  emigrants  pouring  into  the  Western  country. 
He  was  a  genuine  Yankee,  with  the  characteristic  traits  of 
his  Puritan  stock.  Frugally  reared  on  a  Vermont  farm,  yet 
contriving,  as  only  a  New  England  farmer's  boy  could,  to 


BISHOP  PHILANDER    CHASE.  435 

go  to  college,  he  graduated  at  Dartmouth  in  i  795.  He  had 
entered  a  Puritan;  he  came  out  a  churchman;  for  he  had 
found  there  a  Prayer-book,  and  the  study  of  it  converted 
him.  After  teaching  at  Albany  he  was  ordered  deacon  by 
Bishop  Provoost  in  i  798.  He  was  possessed  of  a  restless 
missionary  zeal,  and  the  life  of  a  frontiersman  beckoned 
him.  His  first  work  was  in  western  New  York,  planting 
parishes  in  the  wilderness,  notably  at  Utica  and  Auburn. 
After  receiving  priest's  orders  he  for  five  years  had  charge 
of  churches  at  Poughkeepsie  and  Fishkill,  to  which  double 
charge  he  added  the  labors  of  principal  of  the  academy. 
The  Protestants  of  New  Orleans  applied  to  Bishop  Moore 
for  a  clergyman,  and  he  sent  them  Chase.  He  went  in 
1805,  established  Christ  Church  in  New  Orleans,  scoured 
the  outlying  settlements  for  converts,  fell  almost  mortally 
ill  of  malaria,  and  returned  to  New  England  in  181 1. 

From  this  time  he  was  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  until  181 7,  when  he  could  no  longer  repress 
his  itinerant  instincts,  and  so  started  for  the  district  in  Ohio 
called  the  Western  Reserve.  Here  at  Salem  he  made  his 
home.  No  Episcopalians  were  there ;  in  fact,  there  were 
few  among  the  Western  emigrants  anywhere,  for  at  the 
East  they  chiefly  belonged  to  the  classes  which  did  not 
emigrate.  But  from  settlement  to  settlement  Chase  pushed 
his  way,  instructing  the  people  in  the  church's  worship, 
with  which  many  were  much  pleased.  He  established 
relations  with  the  two  clergymen  already  in  the  State,  but 
remote  from  each  other.  In  181 8  the  five  clergy  who  con- 
stituted the  entire  clerical  force  in  the  State  met  with  some 
nine  laymen  at  Worthington,  having  organized  a  diocese 
at  Columbus  the  year  before,  and  elected  Chase  bishop. 
It  was  an  election  to  toil  and  penury,  but  as  such  it  had 
for  him  its  charms.  He  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  W^hite 
in   St.  James's   Church,  Philadelphia,  February    ii,  1819. 


436  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

He  at  once  pushed  his  way  on  horseback,  through  incred- 
ible dangers,  back  to  his  diocese. 

To  detail  his  perils  in  the  wilderness  there  is  no  space. 
The  fruit  of  them  is  found  in  the  two  dioceses  of  Ohio  and 
Illinois.  He  knew  the  people,  and  was  wise  to  win  them  ; 
and  he  saw  that  those  who  should  win  them  must  know 
and  love  them.  Hence  the  necessity  for  Ohio,  as  for  Virginia 
under  Bishop  Moore,  of  a  ministry  bred  on  the  spot.  He  de- 
cided to  found -a  college  and  to  go  to  England  for  money  to 
build  it.  He  met  with  discouragement  by  the  way.  Bishop 
Hobart  strongly  disapproved  his  action  and  was  on  his  way 
to  England,  where  his  position  and  character  would  give 
him  influence.  Still  the  sturdy  frontier  bishop  went;  and 
he  captured  the  public.  He  was  a  prehistoric  ecclesiastical 
ranchman,  withthewild  flavor  and  unconventional  simplicity 
which  so  captivate  the  aristocrat  to-day.  He  had  a  letter 
from  Henry  Clay  to  Lord  Gambler,  who  was  president  of 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  he  was  received  with 
open  arms.  He  returned  home  in  1824  with  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  subsequently  received  ten  thousand  more. 
He  named  the  college  Kenyon,  from  Lord  Kenyon,  who 
largely  assisted  him  ;  and  the  place  where  he  established  it 
Gambler,  from  his  first  English  friend.  Lord  Gambler.  He 
gathered  pupils  and  instructors,  and,  amid  much  roughness 
of  living,  the  work  of  education  went  on.  Difficulties  and 
disagreements  in  administration  arose,  and  caused  him  in 
183 1  to  resign  both  his  presidency  and  his  bishopric,  after 
he  had  with  incessant  toil  served  in  this  twofold  capacity 
for  ten  years.  The  college  still  stands,  and,  though  it  has 
never  been  a  large  institution,  has  sent  forth  a  remarkable 
number  of  distinguished  men,  and  is  efficient  to-day. 

After  leaving  Ohio  he  went  to  the  still  wilder  Michi- 
gan, where  he  combined  missionary  labor  and  farming  for 
three  or  four  years,  "  invading  no  man's  diocese,  parish,  or 


BISHOP  CHASE  IN  ILLINOIS.  437 

labors,"  until  in  1835  the  three  clergymen  and  three  par- 
ishes in  Illinois  met  at  Peoria,  formed  themselves  into  a 
diocese,  and  elected  Bishop  Chase  their  bishop.  He  was 
received  by  the  General  Convention  which  assembled  the 
same  year.  Though  now  sixty  years  of  age,  he  began 
with  all  the  ardor  of  youth  to  repeat  the  labors  and  suc- 
cesses of  his  old  Ohio  life.  He  found  the  same  needs  here 
as  in  his  first  diocese,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  supply 
them,  and  in  the  same  manner.  In  the  autumn  of  the 
year  of  his  assuming  the  episcopate  of  Illinois  he  went  a 
second  time  to  England  to  gather  funds  for  a  new  college 
for  the  training  of  Western  ministers  and  the  education  of 
the  sons  of  the  frontiersmen.  In  seven  months  he  returned 
with  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  began  the  foundations  of 
Jubilee  College.  He  received  gifts,  also,  from  his  own 
countrymen.  He  again  visited  the  South  in  1839,  and 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Georgia,  and  South  CaroHna  made 
generous  response  to  his  appeals.  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  Brooklyn,  at  the  North,  contributed.  New 
England  sustained  scholarships;  Old  England,  from  time 
to  time,  sent  aid.  Thus  he  established  his  second  college ; 
and  as  the  pioneer  missionary  bishop  to  the  West,  service- 
able to  its  humblest  needs  and  alive  to  its  imperative 
demands,  he  did  his  great  work  of  saving  the  region  to 
civilization  and  to  a  reasonable  and  churchly  Christianity. 
Two  collegiate  institutions  and  two  dioceses,  started  and 
consolidated,  are  a  monument  which  few  have  ever  erected 
to  their  own  memory.  And  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  all 
this  was  done  in  the  midst  of  primeval  forests,  surrounded 
by  the  crudest  conditions  of  pioneer  life. 

In  "the  meantime  the  church  at  the  East  and  the  South 
felt  the  same  impulse  to  supply  facilities  for  the  education 
of  the  ministry  that  Chase  had  felt  in  the  West.  From  this 
impulse,  the  General  Theological  Seminary  at  New  York, 


438  PKOrESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

the  Episcopal  Theological  Seminary  at  Alexandria,  Va.,  and 
Trinity  (at  first  called  Washington)  College  at  Hartford, 
Conn.,  took  their  rise.  As  early  as  1814  the  Rev.  Mr, 
Gadsden,  of  South  Carolina,  had  moved  in  General  Con- 
vention "  that  a  joint  committee  of  both  houses  be  appointed 
to  take  into  consideration  the  institution  of  a  theological 
seminary  "  ;  and  at  the  subsequent  Convention  of  181  7  the 
sense  of  both  houses  was  found  to  be  in  favor  of  a  general 
school,  which  it  had  been  determined  to  establish  in  New 
York.  On  the  motion  of  Bishop  Dehon,  of  South  Carolina, 
it  was 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  expedient  to  establish,  for  the 
better  education  of  the  candidates  for  holy  orders  in  this 
church,  a  General  Theological  Seminary  which  may  have 
the  united  support  of  the  whole  church  in  these  United 
States,  and  be  under  the  superintendence  and  control  of 
the  General  Convention ;  and  that  this  seminary  be  located 
in  the  city  of  New  York." 

Bishop  Hobart  of  New  York  and  Bishop  White  of  Phil- 
adelphia subsequently  called  attention  to  the  institution, 
and  appealed  for  aid  to  found  it.  Rev.  Samuel  F.  Jarvis 
and  Rev.  Samuel  N.  Turner  were  appointed  the  first  pro- 
fessors. In  1 8 19  Mr.  Clement  C.  Moore,  of  New  York, 
offered  the  sixty  city  lots  now  occupied  by  the  seminary, 
on  condition  that  "  the  buildings  of  the  theological  school 
should  be  erected  thereon."  South  Carolina,  from  whence 
the  first  movement  had  been  started,  pledged  it  effectual 
support.  The  work  of  instruction  began  May  i,  1819, 
with  only  two  professors  and  six  students,  among  whom, 
however,  were  the  future  bishops  G.  W.  Doane  and  Man- 
ton  Eastburn.  St.  Paul's  Chapel  first,  and  then  St.  John's, 
housed  the  seminary  in  their  respective  vestry-rooms.  But 
it  did  not  flourish  in  the  city,  and  the  General  Convention 
of  1820  resolved  to  remove  it  to  New  Haven,  and  to  reor- 


GENERAL    THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.  439 

ganize  it  on  a  different  plan.  Bishop  Brownell,  who  had 
succeeded  the  year  before  to  the  episcopate  of  Connecticut, 
took  a  hvely  interest  in  it,  and  promulgated  a  plan  of 
organization ;  and  as  Dr.  Turner  was  now,  owing  to  the 
resignation  of  Dr.  Jarvis,  the  only  professor,  the  bishop 
moved  to  New  Haven  to  act  gratuitously  as  an  instructor. 

In  the  meantime  Bishop  Hobart  founded  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Education  Society  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
which  took  immediate  measures  to  establish  two  associated 
schools,  the  principal  one  in  New  York,  the  other  in  Geneva. 
Both  schools  were  opened  in  the  early  summer  of  1821, 
with  a  corps  of  professors  in  each.  When,  then,  in  March, 
1 82 1  (a  little  before  the  opening  of  the  New  York  school, 
in  May),  the  will  of  Mr.  Jacob  Sherred,  a  vestryman  of  Trin- 
ity Church,  was  read,  bequeathing  a  legacy  of  about  sixty 
thousand  dollars  to  a  seminary  to  be  established  in  New 
York  by  the  General  or  Diocesan  Convention,  "  for  the  edu- 
cation of  young  men  designed  for  holy  orders  in  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church,"  this  new  diocesan  society  of 
Bishop  Hobart  claimed  the  bequest,  which  claim  the  trus- 
tees of  the  General  Seminary  at  New  Haven  were  disposed 
to  dispute.  A  special  meeting  of  the  General  Convention 
was  held,  in  consequence,  in  October,  at  Philadelphia,  to 
decide  the  question  ;  and  the  result  was  the  removal  of  the 
General  Seminary  back  to  New  York,  and  its  union  with 
the  diocesan  school. 

Thus  the  present  General  Theological  Seminary  was 
formed,  and  inherited  the  munificent  legacy  of  Mr.  Sherred. 
The  seminary  reopened  in  New  York  in  February,  1822, 
with  twenty-six  students,  and  has  continued  its  instruction 
to  this  day.  Of  its  long  and  honorable  history  we  have 
not  space  to  write,  nor  can  we  fitly  commemorate  the  labors 
and  self-denials  of  the  many  admirable  men  who  have 
taught  in  it,  nor  the  many  distinguished  alumni  who  have 


440  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

graduated  from  it.  The  names  of  Hobart  and  Turner, 
and  Wilson  and  Moore,  and  Seabury  and  Forbes,  and 
Whittingham  and  Mahan,  are  all  indissolubly  associated 
with  it,  with  many  others  among  the  living  whom  we  may 
not  name.  The  late  munificent  legacy  of  Dr.  Eigenbrodt, 
who  served  many  years  gratuitously  as  a  professor,  shows 
the  appreciation  in  which  those  hold  it  who  have  been 
associated  with  it.  To  the  princely  benefactions  of  the 
present  dean,  Rev.  Dr.  E.  A.  Hoffman,  the  church  and  the 
city  owe  one  of  the  noblest  groups  of  ecclesiastical  archi- 
tecture to  be  found  on  the  continent. 

The  Theological  Seminary  of  the  diocese  of  Virginia 
was  inaugurated  about  the  same  time  as  the  General  Sem- 
inary in  New  York.  It  was  designed  to  educate  clergy 
especially  adapted  to  Virginia  and  the  South ;  and,  while 
Bishop  Moore  disavowed  any  feeling  of  rivalry  with  the 
General  Seminary,  there  was  a  widespread  fear  in  Virginia 
that  a  general  seminary  might  take  too  great  an  impress 
from  the  diocese  in  which  it  was  located,  and  thus  become 
really  diocesan  while  enjoying  the  prestige  of  a  general 
church  institution.  Many  prominent  clergymen  and  bish- 
ops favored  diocesan  schools  in  preference  to  a  general 
one,  and  Bishop  White  was  among  them.  He  stood  for 
the  General  Seminary  when  the  mind  of  the  church  was 
ascertained  to  favor  it,  but  candidly  owned  that  he  "  had 
sacrificed  his  peculiar  sense  of  the  subject  to  that  of  the 
church  generally."  The  need  of  diocesan  schools  at  that 
day  was  more  imperative  than  now.  The  distances  were 
ten  times  greater  then,  by  reason  of  the  modes  of  travel 
and  the  badness  of  the  roads.  The  poverty-stricken  can- 
didates must  study  privately  unless  the  seminary  were 
easy  of  approach.  The  Alexandria  seminary  was  thus  not 
founded  in  faction,  but  to  satisfy  a  real  demand.  After  a 
few  years  of  ill  success  in  establishing  a  theological  profess- 


VIRGINIA    THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY.  44 1 

orship  at  the  College  of  William  and  Mary  at  Williamsburg, 
the  Virginia  Theological  Seminary  was  opened  at  Alex- 
andria in  1823.      It,  too,  has  had  an  honorable  and  distin- 
guished history.     The  successive  bishops  of  Virginia  have 
taken  the  greatest  interest  in  it,  and,  not  to  mention  others, 
the  association  of  such  a  man  as  Dr.  Sparrow,  its  most  dis- 
tinguished professor,  with  it  gave  it  a  consecration  in  the 
minds  of  all  men  who  prize  intellectual  greatness  combined 
with  spiritual  power.      Its  theology  has  always  taken  the 
complexion  of  the  Evangelical  school,  though  it  has  edu- 
cated many  who  have  not  belonged  to  it.     It  long  held  the 
distinction  of  sending  out  all  the  foreign  missionaries  of 
the  church ;  and  of  its  nine  hundred  graduates  fully  fifty 
have   gone   on   foreign   missions,  while    twenty-two    have 
been  made  bishops.      Fifteen  different   dioceses  have  at 
times  been   represented   among  its   students.      After  the 
Civil  War  it  was  nobly  assisted  by  munificent  benefactions 
from  the  North,  especially  by  the  princely  gifts  of  the  late 
William   H.  Aspinwall,  of  New  York.      It  stands   strong 

to-day. 

It  was  soon  after  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Brownell, 
in  1 8 19,  that  steps  were  taken  in  Connecticut  to  establish 
a  church  college.  The  new  bishop  had  been  tutor  and 
professor  in  Union  College  at  Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  for  ten 
years,  and  was  deeply  interested  in  Christian  education. 
It  was  a  congenial  task  to  him  to  revive  the  project  which 
Bishop  Seabury  had  started,  but  was  unable  to  complete, 
in  the  Episcopal  Academy  at  Cheshire,  of  securing  a 
church  college  capable  of  conferring  degrees  and  giving 
the  complete  education  to  which  they  witnessed.  Many 
circumstances  combined  to  make  this  a  propitious  time  for 
the  movement.  The  unhappy  war  with  England  (18 12-15) 
had  at  least  had  this  happy  effect:  to  remove  from  the 
Episcopal  Church  the  charge  of  disloyalty.      Churchmen 


442  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

as  well  as  others  had  enlisted  and  fought  bravely  in  the 
war.  The  "  Star-spangled  Banner,"  which  became  at  once 
a  national  anthem,  had  been  written  by  Francis  S.  Key,  a 
devout  as  well  as  distinguished  layman  of  Maryland ;  and 
the  church  was  seen  to  breed  patriots  in  Connecticut,  as  in 
the  Revolution  it  had  bred  them  in  Virginia.  The  taint 
of  anglomania  was  now  lessened,  if  not  obliterated,  in  the 
diocese  whose  first  bishop  had  been  a  chaplain  in  the  royal 
forces. 

Again,  in  1 8 1  7,  the  Episcopalians  in  the  State  received 
from  the  Bishops'  Fund  one  seventh  of  the  sum  which 
Connecticut  recovered  from  the  United  States  for  expense 
incurred  in  the  late  war  with  England,  and  which  the  State 
distributed  among  the  various  denominations  in  proportion 
to  their  numerical  strength.  In  18 18  the  Standing  Order 
was  overthrown,  and  a  State  constitution  was  adopted, 
with  an  express  provision  for  religious  equality.  In 
1818  also  the  governor,  Oliver  Wolcott,  invited  the  rec- 
tor of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  to  preach  the  Election 
sermon  before  the  General  Assembly  at  Hartford.  In  so 
favorable  a  political  atmosphere  the  General  Assembly 
granted  the  petition  presented  by  churchmen  May  13, 
1823,  and  passed  the  Act  of  Incorporation  of  Washington 
(since  1845  called  Trinity)  College.  The  college  began 
in  September,  1824,  with  one  senior,  one  sophomore,  and 
six  freshmen;  but  by  the  end  of  the  year  the  number  of 
students  was  twenty-eight.  The  first  commencement  was 
held  in  1827,  when  ten  young  men  were  graduated  Bach- 
elors of  Arts.  Bishop  Brownell  acted  as  president  of  the 
institution  for  seven  years,  and  always  watched  over  its 
interests.  Its  list  of  presidents,  including,  since  Bishop 
Brownell,  Dr.  Totten,  Bishop  Williams,  Dr.  Goodwin,  Dr. 
Samuel  Eliot,  Dr.  Jackson,  Dr.  Pynchon,  and  Dr.  William- 
son Smith,  has  been  a  most   honorable  one ;  and,  though 


CHURCH  COLLEGES.  443 

the  near  neighborhood  of  Yale  College  has  somewhat  over- 
shadowed the  institution,  in  the  tone  of  its  scholarship 
it  has  maintained  a  high  rank.  During  the  seventy  years 
of  its  existence  it  has  taught  more  than  sixteen  hundred 
students,  conferred  the  degree  of  B.A.  on  over  nine  hun- 
dred of  them,  and  sent  forth  three  hundred  ministers,  of 
whom  eight  have  become  bishops.  The  Berkeley  Divinity 
School  at  Middletown  was  founded  as  an  offshoot  of  the 
college  during  the  administration  of  Bishop  Williams. 

The  colleges  established  under  the  influence  of  the 
church,  though  respectable  and  useful  institutions,  have 
not  up  to  this  time,  with  the  exception  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege, New  York,  taken  a  leading  rank  in  the  country, 
and  for  various  reasons.  They  were  preceded  by  older 
foundations,  which  in  turn  have  sent  forth  vigorous  off- 
shoots in  newer  but  still  strong  organizations.  At  the 
West  and  the  East  alike  the  church  community  itself 
was  small,  and  was  absorbed  in  reestablishing  itself  after 
the  Revolution  in  the  face  of  strong  popular  prejudice. 
When  the  rnovement  of  establishing  colleges  began  they 
were  chiefly  intended  to  supply  local  wants,  and  they 
partook  largely  of  the  local  character  of  the  diocese  in 
which  they  were  placed.  They  have  been,  as  it  were, 
diocesan  rather  than  general  institutions,  and  have  thus 
embodied  and  represented  sections  of  the  church  instead 
of  the  whole  body.  As  time  went  on  party  spirit  in 
the  church  grew  rife,  and  the  colleges  stood  for  special 
schools  of  churchmanship,  to  be  sought  or  avoided,  accord- 
ing to  the  sympathies  of  individual  churchmen.  They 
have  thus  not  appealed  to  the  church  as  a  whole,  and  have 
suffered  accordingly.  Columbia  College,  by  reason  of  its 
situation  in  New  York  City,  has  been  largely  freed  from 
this  narrowing  and  partisan  aspect,  and  has  profited  by 
this  freedom.     The  latest   of   the   large   institutions,   the 


444  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

University  of  the  South,  virtually  founded  since  the  war 
of  1 86 1  -65 ,  at  Sewanee,  Tenn.,  though  established  originally 
for  one  political  division  of  the  country,  has  imbibed  a 
more  generous  spirit,  and  appealing  to  all  the  Southern 
dioceses,  which  are  represented  in  its  board,  puts  on  the 
larger  aspect  of  the  whole  church.  It  comes  nearer  than 
most  institutions  to  being  truly  a  church  college,  and  its 
promise  is  proportionally  great.  When  all  the  colleges  of 
the  church  give  broader  significance  to  the  legend  on  the 
seal  of  Trinity  College,  "Ecclesia  et  patria,"  they  will  be- 
come more  commensurate  with  the  character  of  the  church 
they  represent. 

While  the  church  was  thus  fortifying  itself  within  by 
the  creation  of  schools  for  theological  and  secular  learning, 
it  was  roused  also  to  extend  its  work  and  influence  by 
establishing  its  missionary  organization.  The  Domestic 
and  Foreign  Missionary  Society  was  formally  inaugurated 
in  Philadelphia  November  21,  1821.  Previous  missionary 
eff"orts  had  been  provincial  and  not  over-successful.  Two 
missionary  societies  had  been  formed  in  Philadelphia :  one 
in  181 2,  for  work  within  Pennsylvania;  one  in  18 16,  for 
work  beyond  the  State.  In  1820  this  last  society,  through 
a  report  by  Rev.  Messrs.  Kemper,  Muhlenberg,  and  Boyd, 
urged  the  formation  of  a  general  missionary  society  of  the 
whole  Episcopal  Church,  to  labor  in  the  two  fields  of  for- 
eign and  domestic  missions.  As  the  term  was  then  used, 
foreign  missions  included  missions  to  Indians,  even  when 
within  the  borders  of  States.  Thus  at  last  the  whole 
church  spoke  on  the  subject  in  the  General  Convention 
of  1820;  and  though  the  plan  then  adopted  was  found  to 
be  defective  and  unworkable,  the  trustees,  with  the  advice 
of  most  of  the  bishops,  consented  to  begin  the  enterprise. 
A  new  constitution,  free  from  misconception,  was  adopted 
at  the  special  General  Convention  of  1 821,  by  which  the 


MISSIONARY  ORGANIZATION.  445 

society  was  constituted  as  composed  of  the  bishops  and 
deputies  of  the  General  Convention,  represented  by  a  board 
of  directors,  and  working  by  an  executive  committee  of 
eight. 

The  great  hindrance  before  this  time  to  planting  missions 
in  the  new  States  and  Territories  had  been  the  identity  of 
the  state  with  the  diocese.  It  was  not  until  1838  that  the 
word  "State"  was  replaced  by  the  word  "  Diocese"  in  the 
constitution.  The  General  Convention  had  felt  itself  un- 
warranted to  impose  bishops  on  independent  churches  or 
on  States  which  possessed  the  inherent  rights  of  organiza- 
tion and  of  choosing  their  own  episcopal  head.  There  thus 
existed  for  years  many  dioceses  which  were  represented  in 
the  General  Convention  only  in  the  House  of  Clerical  and 
Lay  Deputies,  because  there  was  no  bishop.  As  an  ex- 
treme instance,  Delaware  (represented  in  the  earliest  Con- 
ventions, and  furnishing,  in  the  person  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Charles  Henry  Wharton,  one  of  the  men  most  influential 
in  framing  the  Constitution  and  forming  the  Prayer-book) 
had  no  bishop  until  1841.  New  Jersey,  Maine,  North 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  other  States  shared  in  less  degree 
this  same  impediment  to  growth.  It  was  seen  that  the 
time  had  come  for  other  and  more  aggressive  action. 

The  effort  to  awaken  a  missionary  spirit  in  the  church 
met  with  enthusiastic  and  general  support.  Auxiliary 
societies  immediately  sprang  up.  The  very  next  year  the 
executive  committee  reported  the  formation  of  eleven  of 
them,  eight  of  them  being  female  societies;  and  in  1836 
thirty-two  auxiliaries  were  reported.  All  types  of  church- 
men cooperated  in  urging  the  claims  of  missions.  Doane 
and  Hopkins,  Mcllvaine  and  Meade,  Otey,  De  Lancey, 
Henshaw,  Milnor,  Tyng,  all  used  their  eloquence  to  ad- 
vocate the  cause.  OfTerings  flowed  in  in  response.  On 
motion  of  Bishop  Hobart  the  House   of  Bishops  in  1828 


446  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

recommended  the  clergy  to  make  annual  collections  for  the 
society ;  and  Dr.  Wainwright  made  plain  that  "  though 
domestic  and  foreign  missions  may  be  distinct  in  name, 
yet  the  ca-use  itself  is  one  and  indivisible."  Bishop  White 
pledged  his  private  credit  for  the  supply  of  needed  means 
in  an  emergency. 

The  first  person  who  offered  himself  for  foreign  mission- 
ary work  was  the  Rev.  Joseph  R.  Andrews,  of  the  Eastern 
Diocese,  who,  commended  by  Bishop  Griswold,  went  out 
in  1820  to  Liberia  as  "a  missionary  and  agent  of  the 
Colonization  Society."  He  died  the  next  year.  The 
General  Convention  of  1826  unanimously  declared  that 
"  measures  should  be  taken  for  establishing  missions  at 
Liberia  and  Buenos  Ayres  "  ;  and  the  executive  committee 
nominated  Mr.  Jacob  Orson,  a  colored  man,  as  missionary 
to  Africa  as  soon  as  he  could  obtain  orders.  Ordained 
afterward  by  Bishop  Brownell,  he  died  as  the  ship  which 
was  to  take  him  was  about  to  sail.  The  blockade  of 
Buenos  Ayres  prevented  the  Rev.  Lot  Jones,  appointed  to 
its  oversight,  from  reaching  his  destination.  The  mission 
to  Greece  in  1829  was  the  really  first  foreign  mission  estab- 
lished. The  Rev.  J.  J.  Robertson,  of  Maryland,  was  sent 
to  Greece  on  a  tour  of  exploration  in  1829;  and  in  conse- 
quence of  his  report  on  his  return,  he,  together  with  the 
Rev.  and  Mrs.  John  R.  Hill  and  Mr.  Solomon  Bingham, 
sailed  in  October,  1830,  and  established  schools  in  Athens, 
which  have  been  fruitful  of  results  from  the  beginning. 
The  instructions  to  these  missionaries,  prepared  by  Bishop 
Griswold  and  Dr.  (afterward  Bishop)  B.  B.  Smith,  im- 
pressed upon  them  that  they  were  not  going  to  establish 
another  church,  but  to  endeavor  to  prudently  and  gradu- 
ally eliminate  from  their  pupils  the  corruptions  of  their 
own.  It  was  not  a  quixotic  enterprise.  The  whole  world 
at  the  time  was  alive  with   enthusiasm   over  the   heroic 


FOREIGX  MISSIONS.  447 

efforts  of  the  Greeks  in  freeing  themselves  from  Turkish 
rule  and  Mohammedan  oppression ;  and  the  need  of 
education  was  so  great  in  the  old  classic  country  that 
many  of  the  Greek  youth  were  sent  to  the  continent  of 
Europe  for  education,  where  they  imbibed  and  returned 
with  infidel  principles.  In  two  months  after  Mrs.  Hill's 
school  for  girls  was  opened  there  were  a  hundred  and 
sixty-sev^en  pupils,  from  three  to  eighteen  years  old,  and 
very  few  of  them  could  read.  A  boys'  school  was  begun, 
and  a  hundred  pupils  flocked  to  it.  The  influence  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hill  was  ever  most  healthful  and  purifying. 
Through  a  long  life  they  continued  to  educate  in  a  pure 
Christianity  multitudes  of  those  who  are  now  the  fathers 
and  mothers  of  the  Greek  community.  The  schools  are 
still  maintained,  a  blessing  to  the  land. 

The  mission  to  China  was  established  at  the  very  close 
of  the  period  of  the  church's  life  we  are  now  considering. 
It  owed  its  beginning  to  the  devotion  of  young  Lyde,  who 
died  in  1834,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  before  he  could 
enter  the  missionary  service,  to  which  he  had  consecrated 
his  life.  His  spirit  was  caught  by  others,  and  in  1835  the 
funds  were  found,  and  the  Rev.  Henry  Lockwood,  of  the 
General  Theological  Seminary,  and  the  Rev.  Francis  R. 
Hansen,  a  graduate  of  the  Virginia  Theological  Seminary, 
sailed  together  for  China.  This  was  before  the  English 
Church  had  entered  that  field.  Bishop  Boone  was  the 
first  foreign  missionary  bishop  elected  by  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  and  he  was  consecrated  for  China  in 
1844. 

The  history  of  these  missions  we  may  not  here  trace. 
The  church,  after  the  action  of  1821,  was  fairly  started  on 
the  course  she  has  ever  since  pursued  with  steadfast  steps. 
All  the  bishops  for  the  new-formed  dioceses  were  really 
missionary  bishops  in  the  nature  of  their  work.      But  not 


448  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

until  1835  was  the  first  so-called  missionary  bishop  elected 
in  the  person  of  Jackson  Kemper,  D.D.  His  truly  apos- 
tolic work  will  be  noticed  hereafter.  The  most  significant 
fact  in  regard  to  the  church's  missionary  action  at  this 
period  is  to  be  found  in  the  report  of  the  committee  hav- 
ing in  charge  the  "  consideration  of  changes  in  the  mode 
of  missionary  operations."  Its  spirit  inspired  the  whole 
church,  and  its  plan  reinvigorated  its  whole  missionary 
activity.  It  was  the  outcome  of  churchmen  of  all  schools, 
and  was  the  unanimous  expression  of  their  settled  convic- 
tions. It  enunciated  and  enforced  the  proposition  that 
"  the  church  is  the  missionary  society,"  and  that  "  every 
Christian  in  the  terms  of  his  baptismal  vow  "  is  pledged 
to  cooperate  in  preaching  the  gospel  to  every  creature. 
The  Board  of  Missions  thus  became  the  agent  of  the  whole 
church  in  missionary  work,  and  its  two  departments,  foreign 
and  domestic,  were  regarded  only  as  what  Dr.  Tyng  had  de- 
clared them  to  be — departments  of  one  great  field.  Bishop 
Doane,  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  presented  and  en- 
forced these  positions  with  great  eloquence  and  power ;  and 
he  was  ably  seconded  by  other  members  of  the  committee, 
notably  by  Bishop  Mcllvaine  and  Drs.  Henshaw  and  Milnor. 
As  a  result,  the  General  Convention  unanimously  adopted 
the  canons  concerning  missionary  bishops;  and  Bishop 
Kemper  was  elected  for  the  Northwest,  and  Dr.  Francis 
L.  Hawks  for  the  Southwest,  which  appointment,  however, 
the  latter  declined. 

To  return  to  the  year  1823,  beyond  which  we  have 
traced  the  course  of  the  Missionary  Society,  we  find  that 
there  was  an  evident  expansion  all  through  these  years 
of  the  church's  life.  The  consecration,  in  1823,  of  John 
Stark  Ravenscroft  to  the  bishopric  of  North  Carolina  forced 
into  prominence  a  marked  character  whose  impress  is  still 
strong  on  the  church  at  the  South.     The  diocese  had  only 


BISHOP  RAVENSCROFT.  449 

been  organized  in  181  7,  and  consisted  of  four  churches, 
three  surviving  from  the  colonial  period,  namely,  St.  James's, 
»  Wilmington,  St.  Paul's,  Edenton,  and  Christ  Church,  New 
Berne ;  and  one  new  one  added,  St.  John's,  Fayetteville. 
This  work  of  organization  was  simply  meant  to  gather 
together  what  remained  of  the  old  colonial  churches. 
Bishop  Moore,  of  Virginia,  gave  them  occasional  episcopal 
oversight  until  1823,  when  Ravenscroft  was  elected  bishop. 
John  Stark  Ravenscroft  was  unlike  the  men  who  had 
been  previously  admitted  to  the  episcopate,  in  that  he 
had  lived  an  utterly  godless  though  not  a  dissolute  life 
until  he  was  thirty-eight  years  old,  and  had  been  admitted 
deacon  at  the  ripe  age  of  forty-five.  He  was  born  in 
Virginia,  1772,  of  Scotch  parentage,  and,  while  of  gentle 
blood  and  breeding,  exhibited  both  before  and  after  his 
conversion  the  blunt  pertinacity  and  pugnacity  of  his 
race.  He  combined  with  his  Scotch  obstinacy  the  ardor 
of  a  Virginian;  and  when  once  his  feet  were  turned  into 
the  right  path,  he  walked  unflinchingly  in  it.  His  con- 
version was  a  very  marked  one,  and  his  theological 
opinions  and  ecclesiastical  convictions  bore  the  impress 
of  it.  The  doctrines  of  grace,  so  called,  formed  the  sub- 
stance of  his  preaching.  Being  consciously  converted 
himself,  he  believed  in  bringing  others  through  a  similar 
experience.  Withal  he  was  a  strong  High-churchman  ec- 
clesiastically, demanding  for  the  satisfaction  of  his  soul 
a  demonstrable  authority  for  those  rites  and  sacraments 
which  incorporated  him  into  the  church  and  preserved  him 
in  the  covenant  of  grace.  After  a  ministry  of  six  years 
in  Virginia  he  undertook  the  rule  and  oversight  of  the  four 
churches  of  North  Carolina,  and  of  the  other  scattered 
sheep  of  the  Episcopal  fold  within  its  borders  who  had  no 
sheepfold  and  no  shepherd.  Before  his  death,  in  1830, 
there  had  been  added  to  the  original  four  churches  twenty- 


45 O  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

three.  He  accomplished  this  result  by  incessant  labor  and 
by  a  promptness  and  devotion  beyond  praise.  Such  jour- 
neyings,  and  such  wildness  both  of  nature  and  of  man  to  be 
encountered  in  them!  They  seemed  only  to  inflame  the 
whole  soul  of  the  intrepid  bishop.  He  was  called  the  lion- 
hearted,  and,  from  the  description  of  the  energy  and  roar 
of  his  preaching,  he  might  well  have  been  called  the  lion- 
mouthed.  Force  was  his  distinguishing  characteristic; 
and  his  brusqueness  and  bluntness  often  gave  offense. 
But  there  was  a  force  of  afTection  as  well  as  of  speech  and 
action,  and  it  was  quite  as  characteristic  of  him.  On  his 
death- bed  he  said,  "  I  have  many  pardons  to  ask  of  my 
fellow-men  for  my  harshness  of  manner  toward  them, 
but,"  striking  his  heart,  he  exclaimed,  "  there  was  no 
harshness  here."  Sternness  and  severity  were  apparent 
in  him  because  they  were  real  in  him.  They  were  the 
sternness  and  severity  of  a  man  who  has  felt  his  own  need 
of  them  in  gaining  deliverance  from  sin,  and  he  believed 
others  needed  them  as  well  as  he.  "  There  are  times 
when  you  must  not  withhold  the  terrors  of  the  law,  but 
pour  them  boiling  hot  into  their  hearts,"  he  once  said  to 
one  who  pleaded  for  occasional  mildness  in  preaching ;  and 
the  impression  of  his  own  sermons  is  seen  in  the  remark  of 
a  hoary  sinner,  one  of  his  hearers :  "  O  sir,  you  have  made 
me  feel  as  I  have  never  felt  before ;  God  is  greatly  to  be 
feared." 

Such  a  man,  of  commanding  height  and  mien,  of 
stormy  energy,  of  intense  devotion,  of  clear-cut  convic- 
tions, tinged  with  the  gloom  and  earnestness  of  a  rescued 
soul,  could  not  fail  to  make  a  deep  mark  on  the  men  he 
wrestled  with  and  the  church  he  ruled.  He  was  virtually 
a  missionary  in  his  own  diocese,  and  his  work  and  his 
character  are  stamped  indelibly  upon  it.  Such  men  have 
their  limitations,  but  their  influence  is  abiding.      No  one 


VARIOUS  EPISCOPAL    COXSECRATIONS.  451 

in  North  Carolina  during  or  after  Bishop  Ravenscroft's 
rule  could  dare  repeat  the  old  reproach  that  the  church 
he  served  guarded  the  decencies  but  neglected  the  essen- 
tials of  religion.  He  won  respect  for  its  rigor  and  earnest- 
ness.     He  made  it  a  power  which  has  not  waned. 

Other  consecrations  to  the  episcopate  followed  that  of 
Ravenscroft,  whose  influence  was  more  felt  at  a  subsequent 
period  than  this.  Henry  U.  Onderdonk  became  assistant 
to  Bishop  White  in  1827,  amid  scenes  of  partisan  conflict 
which  foretold  the  coming  contention  of  parties  who  could 
not  understand  or  appreciate  one  another  until  the  vigor  of 
their  youth  had  by  experience  gained  a  calmer  and  broader 
wisdom.  The  denominational  spirit  long  prevailed  in  the 
body  which  laid  emphasis  on  its  churchliness ;  and  its 
violent  manifestation  at  this  election  vexed  the  soul  of  the 
venerable  White,  who  had  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
church  on  the  basis  of  mutual  comprehension,  and  not  of 
one-sided  domination. 

William  Meade,  who  had  been  a  candidate  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania election,  and  withdrawn  from  it,  became  the  as- 
sistant of  Bishop  Moore,  of  Virginia,  in  1829;  a  veritable 
coadjutor,  who  shared  the  convictions  of  his  chief,  and 
long  after  him  ruled  the  diocese  in  the  same  spirit.  William 
Murray  Storer  succeeded  Bishop  Kemp  as  Bishop  of  Mary- 
land in  1830,  a  compromise  candidate  between  Dr.  Wyatt 
on  the  one  side  and  Drs.  Henshaw  and  Johns  on  the  other. 
For  seven  years  he  filled  with  dignity  that  most  difficult 
position,  in  which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  satisfy  either 
of  the  electing  parties,  because  the  actual  bishop  is  the  first 
choice  of  neither.  In  the  same  year  Benjamin  T.  Onder- 
donk began  his  troubled  episcopate  of  New  York,  in 
succession  to  Bishop  Hobart ;  and  in  1831  Levi  Silliman 
Ives  succeeded  Bishop  Ravenscroft  in  North  Carolina. 

The  year  1832  was  memorable  for  the  consecration  to- 


452  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.      [Chap.  xv. 

gather  of  four  men  who  became  as  marked  in  their 
influence  upon  the  church  as  the  group  of  three  from- 
whose  consecration  we  date  this  period.  They  were  John 
Henry  Hopkins,  first  Bishop  of  Vermont;  Benjamin  Bos- 
worth  Smith,  first  Bishop  of  Kentucky ;  Charles  Petit 
Mcllvaine,  second  Bishop  of  Ohio ;  and  George  Washing- 
ton Doane,  second  Bishop  of  New  Jersey.  The  service 
was  held  in  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  New  York,  October  31, 
1832,  the  venerable  White  acting  as  consecrator.  James 
N.  Otey  became  first  Bishop  of  Tennessee  in  1834;  Jack- 
son Kemper  was  elected  and  consecrated  missionary  bishop 
of  Missouri  and  Indiana,  with  jurisdiction  all  through  the 
Northwest,  in  1835;  and  Samuel  Allen  McCoskry  was 
elected  first  Bishop  of  Michigan  in  1836,  just  too  late  to 
be  consecrated  by  Bishop  White,  who  then  lay  on  his 
death-bed. 

It  will  be  seen  by  some  of  these  consecrations  that  a 
number  of  new  dioceses  had  in  the  meantime  been  organ- 
ized and  joined  the  General  Convention.  Maine  had  been 
admitted  in  1820,  though  it  continued  to  form  part  of  the 
Eastern  Diocese;  Georgia  in  1823;  Mississippi  in  1825; 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  in  1829;  Alabama  in  1830;  and 
Michigan  in  1832. 

The  church  in  New  York  had  by  this  time  grown  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  necessity  of  dividing  the  diocese 
had  become  apparent.  To  accomplish  this,  which  was  a 
new  departure  and  the  beginning  of  the  breaking  up  of 
State  representation  in  the  General  Convention,  an  altera- 
tion of  Article  II.  of  the  constitution  was  necessary,  and 
it  was  therefore  recommended  for  the  consideration  of 
the  next  Convention.  In  1838  the  division  was  made, 
and  the  diocese  of  Western  New  York  created.  This 
was  not  done  without  much  controversy  and  a  storm 
of  pamphlets ;   but   it    was  accomplished   under  the  wise 


DEATH  OF  BISHOP   WHITE.  453 

advocacy  of  Dr.  Whittingham,  afterward  the  great  Bishop 
of  Maryland ;  and  the  new  diocese,  under  the  wise  rule 
of  Bishop  De  Lancey,  fully  vindicated  the  wisdom  of  the 
procedure. 

At  this  last  Convention  before  the  death  of  Bishop 
White  the  clergy  list,  which  in  181 1  had  contained  one 
hundred  and  sixty-nine  names  (Virginia  not  included),  had 
grown  to  include  seven  hundred  and  sixty-three.  The 
two  bishops,  with  twenty-five  clerical  and  twenty-two  lay 
deputies  who  were  in  attendance  on  Convention  then, 
were  now  represented  by  fourteen  bishops,  sixty-nine 
clerical  and  fifty-one  lay  deputies.  Nine  States  were 
represented  in  181 1  ;  in  1835  twenty-one. 

Within  the  year  following  the  Convention  of  1835 
Bishop  White  was  called  to  his  rest.  He  was  preparing 
to  preach  at  the  consecration  of  Bishop  McCoskry,  which 
took  place  July  7,  1836,  when  he  was  taken  ill,  July  2d, 
and,  lingering  till  July  1 7th,  died  in  the  same  peaceful 
serenity  in  which  he  had  lived.  He  was  eighty-eight 
years  of  age  and  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  episcopate. 
The  course  of  his  life  in  the  church  has  been  indicated 
in  the  history  of  the  events  in  which  he  took  part.  It 
was  an  illustration  of  the  beatitude,  "  Blessed  are  the 
peacemakers."  He  had  won  universal  respect.  His  chief 
service  had  been  that  of  counselor;  and  the  foundation 
of  the  national  church  was  due  to  him  more  than  to  any 
other  man.  He  was,  however,  faithful  in  all  things,  and 
if  not  largely  endowed  with  the  modern  spirit  of  stirring 
activity,  he  was  intrepid  in  the  discharge  of  every  paro- 
chial and  civic  duty.  He  remained  at  his  post  unflinch- 
ingly for  weeks  during  the  ravages  of  the  yellow  fever  in 
Philadelphia,  when  many  ministers  had  left  the  city.  He 
stood  for  things  honest  and  of  good  report  in  civil  life 
also,  and  was   honored    beyond   most   men    as   a  citizen. 


454  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.       [Chap.  xv. 

Never  mingling  in  ordinary  politics,  he  did  not  believe 
that  his  duties  as  a  member  of  the  community  were 
abrogated  by  his  ecclesiastical  position.  He  always  voted. 
He  took  a  decided  stand  on  the  moral  aspects  of  public 
affairs,  as  in  his  opposition  to  the  acceptance  by  the  city 
of  Mr.  Girard's  bequest,  conditioned  on  the  exclusion  of 
clergymen,  even  as  visitors,  from  the  college  he  founded. 
He  favored  the  American  Colonization  Society  and  pre- 
sided at  its  public  meetings.  He  was  long  president  of  the 
Philadelphia  Bible  Society,  whose  course  he  thoroughly 
approved  and  upheld.  His  relations  to  non- Episcopal 
clergymen  were  marked  by  the  courtesy  and  friendliness 
which  were  the  outflow  of  his  conviction  that  in  maintain- 
ing the  ancient  regimen  of  bishops  the  English  Church 
pronounced  no  judgment  against  those  who  did  not.  He 
did  not  believe  in  entangling  alliances,  nor  in  mingling 
services,  nor  in  exchange  of  pulpits,  holding  that  peace  and 
amity  were  best  advanced  by  each  body  preserving  its  own 
special  features  and  attending  strictly  to  its  own  affairs. 
But  neighborliness  was  eminently  his  characteristic,  and, 
while  loyal  to  his  own  household  of  faith,  he  was  benign 
in  his  charity  to  all. 

He  was  endeared  to  all,  and  he  was  often  spoken  of  by 
members  of  all  denominations  as  "  our  bishop."  His  re- 
ligious convictions  were  clear  and  simply  evangelical,  and 
his  character  came  as  near  to  that  of  innocence  as  is  com- 
patible witli  the  infirmities  of  human  nature.  He  was 
learned  for  his  day  and  was  a  generous  benefactor,  and 
thus  became  an  object  of  veneration  to  all  men ;  and  his 
presence,  so  modest  and  reserved,  was  regarded  as  a  ben- 
ediction everywhere. 

He  was  buried  July  20th,  in  his  family  vault  at  Christ 
Church.  His  remains  have  since  been  removed  to  a  place 
beneath  the  chancel.     On  the  day  of  his  funeral  there  was 


BISHOP    WHITE'S  FUNERAL.  455 

voluntarily  a  general  suspension  of  business.  The  public 
authorities,  the  various  literary,  charitable,  and  religious 
societies,  the  clergy  and  members  of  different  Christian 
churches,  as  well  as  those  of  his  own  communion,  composed 
the  immense  funeral  procession,  which  was  witnessed  by 
many  thousands  who  thronged  the  streets,  and  v>'ho  pre- 
served silence  and  good  order  throughout.  His  name 
had  been  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  church  in  the  days  of 
its  infancy.  During  its  youthful  years  nothing  tended 
more  than  his  unflinching  advocacy  to  divest  it  of  a  for- 
eign aspect  and  commend  it  to  the  respect  of  his  coun- 
trymen. In  its  later  life  his  steadfast  enthusiasm  and  ap- 
proval greatly  aided  its  establishment  as  a  potent  factor 
in  the  religious  history  of  the  American  people. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

FROM    THE    DEATH   OF   BISHOP   WHITE  TO  THE    END    OF 
THE   CIVIL    WAR  (1835-65). 

A  CHANGE  had  come  over  the  temper  of  the  church 
during  the  last  years  of  Bishop  White.  A  change  was 
likewise  impending  in  the  mind  and  method  of  the  church's 
work.  In  the  crystallization  of  parties  there  lay  the  germs 
of  much  internal  and  unprofitable  strife,  and  also  of  much 
vigorous  and  aggressive  life.  In  replacing  the  State  idea 
by  the  diocesan  principle,  a  force  was  set  free  which  joined 
the  church  more  fully  to  the  course  of  the  nation's  develop- 
ment. Through  its  missionary  bishops  it  now  became  a 
fully  organized  church  in  the  Territories  as  well  as  in  the 
States,  and  though  it  accomplished  but  a  tithe  of  its  task, 
it  discerned  it,  owned  it,  and  labored  at  it.  This  was  done 
by  the  efforts  of  what  now  became  fully  recognized  as  two 
distinct  parties,  each  suspicious  and  distrustful  of  the  other, 
each  striving  for  the  mastery,  and  failing  to  see  how,  if  its 
own  postulates  were  true,  the  other  had  any  right  of  being 
whatever. 

Notwithstanding  the  anomaly  of  internal  dissension  and 
external  progress,  this  time  of  strife  was  the  time  of  the 
church's  most  rapid  and  widespread  growth.  It  witnessed 
the  heroic  labors  of  Kemper  in  the  Northwest  and  Otey  in 
the  Southwest,  whereby  the  church  was  started  or  estab- 
lished in  the  outlying  regions  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
both  at  its  source  and  at  its  mouth.      In  the  latter  part  of 

456 


EXFANSJON  OF   THE   EFISCOFATE.  457 

this  period  Bishop  Kip  became  the  first  bishop  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  going  out  to  the  miners  of  CaHfornia  in 
1853.  Bishop  Scott  planted  the  church  in  Oregon,  1854; 
and  Bishop  Washington  Lee  began  to  rule  it  in  Iowa  the 
same  year.  Henry  Benjamin  Whipple  went  to  Minnesota 
in  1859;  now  the  sole  survivor  of  the  Western  pioneer 
bishops,  worthy  to  live  on  as  witness  of  what  consecrated 
service  can  accomplish  for  native  Indians  and  encroaching 
white  men.  He  lives ;  and  we  may  not  write  his  epitaph, 
for  that  could  only  be  eulogy.  And  there  have  been 
Talbot  in  the  Northwest  and  Indiana,  Gregg  in  Texas, 
Freeman  and  Lay  in  Arkansas,  Rutledge  in  Florida, 
Vail  in  Kansas,  Clarkson  in  Nebraska,  and  Randall  in 
Colorado,  all  appointed  within  this  period,  and  all  pioneers 
in  their  respective  fields.  They  stand  as  witnesses  not 
only  to  the  personal  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  which  the 
gospel  inspires,  but  to  an  expansion  of  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction which  has  made  the  church  coterminous  with  the 
national  domain. 

During  this  period  forty-four  bishops  were  consecrated, 
nearly  three  times  as  many  as  survived  at  the  death  of 
Bishop  White ;  and  had  the  proportional  increase  of  the 
first  half  of  the  period  continued,  the  church  would  have 
now  almost  dominated  the  religious  life  of  the  nation. 
The  numerous  details  of  this  wonderful  expansion  cannot 
in  the  allotted  space  be  stated,  nor  is  there  even  room  for 
the  grateful  mention  of  the  many  noble  men  and  women 
who  have  by  their  labors  produced  it.  We  can  only  indi- 
cate certain  of  its  salient  features  which  serve  to  illustrate 
the  rest.  By  1850  the  seven  hundred  and  sixty-three 
clergymen  of  1835  had  more  than  doubled,  having  reached 
the  number  of  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-eight ;  and  during 
the  last  half  of  this  period,  or  by  1865,  the  clergy  list  re- 
ported   twenty-four    hundred  and   fifty.      The   communi- 


458  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

cants,  who  in  1835  numbered  about  thirty-six  thousand, 
in  1850  had  risen  to  almost  eighty  thousand;  and  by  1865 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  were  reported.^ 

But  the  church's  growth  was  not  only  along  the  lines 
of  geographical  extension  and  numerical  increase.  The 
features  which  distinguish  it  became  more  clear-cut  and 
more  influential,  and  by  the  force  of  their  own  character 
brought  it  into  prominence  and  multiplied  its  clergy  and 
its  membership.  Its  worship  took  on  a  more  dignified 
mien  and  a  warmer  tone.  Through  the  efforts  especially 
of  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  its  hymnody  was  enriched  and  enlarged. 
Church  architecture  was  improved,  receiving  its  most  po- 
tent impulse  from  the  erection  of  the  present  edifices  of 
Trinity  Church  and  Grace  Church,  New  York,  and  creat- 
ing a  new  taste  and  knowledge  in  church  building  and  fur- 
nishing, which  has  revolutionized  the  appearance  of  church 
edifices  throughout  the  country.  Stained  glass  came  in, 
and  vested  choirs  of  men  and  boys  appeared.  Recessed 
chancels  became  the  rule  ;  and  pulpit  and  reading-desk 
were  so  placed  on  either  side  of  it  as  to  make  the  holy 
table  evident,  and  give  it  the  dignity  of  chief  position. 
The  old  three-decker  arrangement,  of  high  pulpit,  lower 
reading-desk,- and  still  lower  communion-table  (which  had 
been  introduced  by  Bishop  Hobart,  not  to  obscure,  but  to 
give  prominence  to,  the  holy  table,  which  before  had  been 
hidden  behind  pulpit  and  reading-desk),  gave  way.  A 
lectern  often  replaced  the  cumbrous  desk,  and  stalls  for 
choir  and  clergy  were  erected. 

Subordinate,  except  esthetically,  as  such  matters  were, 

they  were  resisted  and  advocated  on  party  grounds  in  this 

polemical    time.       Church    newspapers    multiplied.      The 

1  In  1850  the  population  of  the  United  .States  was  28,847,884,  and  Episcopal 
communicants  79,987.  In  1895  the  State  of  New  York  alone  has  5,981,934 
inhabitants  and  140,055  communicants  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  (.See 
"  Whittaker's  Protestant  Episcopal  Almanac,"  1895,  p.  250.) 


MISSIONARY  ORGANIZATIONS.  459 

"  Churchman,"  the  "  Protestant  Churchman,"  the  "  Ban- 
ner of  the  Cross,"  the  "  Episcopal  Reader,"  and  many 
more,  evidenced  growth  of  church  interest,  but  also  in- 
crease of  church  strife,  which  they  did  nothing  to  allay, 
but  everything  to  inflame.  The  first  half  of  this  period, 
especially,  was  witness  to  strenuous  and  vigorous  advance, 
but  an  advance  along  party  lines.  Even  the  educational 
institutions  now  founded  partook  of  the  same  spirit.  Gen- 
uine religious  enthusiasm  and  principle  lay  at  their  foun- 
dation ;  but  Nashotah,  established  as  an  associate  mission  in 
1842,  was  as  strongly  contrasted  with  Bexley  Hall,  inau- 
gurated at  Gambler  in  1839,  as  Racine  in  Wisconsin  has 
been  distinguished  from  Griswold  College  in  Iowa,  both 
born  within  this  period. 

The  missionary  life  of  the  church  seemed  to  turn  into 
like  limited  channels.  In  1835  there  was  a  sort  of  tacit 
understanding,  which  men  of  the  stamp  of  Bishop  Alonzo 
Potter,  Dr.  Sparrow,  and  Dr.  Stephen  H.  Tyng  opposed, 
that  the  foreign  department  of  missions  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  Evangelicals,  and  the  domestic  field  should 
be  directed  by  the  High-churchmen.  The  consequent 
growth  at  home,  and  the  proportionate  increase  in  repre- 
sentation at  the  General  Convention,  of  High-churchmen 
wrought  so  much  in  favor  of  the  influence  of  the  latter 
that,  under  the  sense  of  unfair  disadvantage,  the  Low- 
churchmen,  in  i860,  organized  the  American  Church 
Missionary  Society,  to  try  to  recover  their  prestige  in  the 
newer  parts  of  the  country.  Thus  it  came  about  that  even 
in  its  missionary  department  the  church  seemed  to  rise  in 
arms  against  itself.  Happily  this  state  of  affairs  did  not 
last  long ;  and  the  general  and  special  missionary  organiza- 
tions became  in  1877  auxiliary  to  each  other.  But  for  a 
w^hile  strong  party  feeling  ruled  in  the  missionary  work  of 
the  church. 


46o  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chai'.  xvi. 

This  spirit  was  not  so  apparent  in  the  foreign  work,  for 
that  was  distant ;  and  Bishop  Boone,  who  went  as  missionary 
bishop  to  China  in  1844,  had  other  tasks  than  party  war- 
fare to  accomplish,  as  had  also  Bishop  Payne,  who  went  to 
Africa  in  185  i.  Horatio  Southgate  was  thought  to  be  a 
Low-churchman  when  he  was  sent  to  Turkey  as  missionary 
bishop  in  the  domains  of  the  sultan  in  1844.  He  had  pre- 
viously labored  for  several  years  among  the  Mohammedans, 
and  was  now  instructed  to  seek  for  friendly  intercourse 
with  the  Eastern  Christians,  and  to  exert  an  influence  for 
their  enlightenment,  rather  than  to  suggest  intercommun- 
ion with  them.  His  methods  of  doing  so,  however, 
excited  much  criticism  by  Low-churchmen  at  home,  who 
feared  he  was  being  more  influenced  by  the  Greek  Church 
than  influencing  it.  When,  therefore,  he  returned  home 
in  1849,  with  the  ideas  he  had  imbibed  in  his  five  years' 
residence  in  Constantinople,  to  attempt  the  separation  of 
his  mission  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Foreign  Committee, 
and  to  transfer  it  into  the  hands  of  the  House  of  Bishops, 
the  mission  was  eventually  allowed  to  drop.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  bishop's  advanced  churchmanship 
had  much  to  do  with  this  result.' 

The  publications  of  the  church  were  likewise  full  of  the 
polemical  spirit.  The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Evan- 
gelical Knowledge  was  established  in  1 847,  to  counteract  the 
influence  of  the  Oxford  tracts  and  the  pamphlets  inspired 
by  them,  which  had  now  appeared  in  copious  measure;  its 
professed  object  being  "  to  maintain  and  to  set  forth  the 
principles  and  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  embodied  in  the 
liturgy  and  Articles  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church." 
Both  parties  claimed  equal  loyalty  to  the  church,  but  each 

1  Bishop  Southgate  was  elected  first  Bishop  of  California  at  this  time  and 
declined.  He  resigned  his  Oriental  mission,  and  served  henceforth  as  rector 
of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Portland,  Me.,  the  Church  of  the  Advent,  Boston,  and 
Zion  Church,  New  York. 


CHURCH  PARTIES.  46 1 

suspected  the  other  of  disloyalty,  and  hence  the  clash  of 
arms.  Each  was  striving  for  the  right  to  be.  At  the 
time  this  seemed  to  involve  the  denial  of  the  other's  right 
to  be. 

The  two  parties  whose  rival  action  is  so  characteristic 
of  this  period  were  not  the  products  of  it.  They  were 
representatives  of  the  two  tendencies,  the  subjective  and 
the  objective,  in  religious  thought  and  life,  which  always 
exist,  and  must  exist,  and  which  were  distinctly  apparent 
in  the  colonial  churches  and  in  the  earlier  years  of  the 
national  church,  before  the  death  of  Bishop  White.  They 
were  both  stimulated  by  the  Oxford  Movement,  whose 
effects  were  quite  as  apparent  in  America  as  in  England, 
and  each  became  more  active  as  the  growing  life  of  the 
church  enlarged  its  sphere  of  influence.  Bishop  Griswold 
in  New  England,  Bishop  Philander  Chase  in  Ohio  and  Illi- 
nois, and  Bishop  Channing  Moore  in  Virginia  had  exerted 
their  influence  along  the  lines  of  the  Evangelical  school  in 
molding  the  church  life  of  their  respective  dioceses;  while 
Bishop  Seabury  in  Connecticut,  Bishop  Hobart  in  New  York, 
and  Bishop  Ravenscroft  in  North  Carolina  had  left  an  equal 
impress  of  the  High-church  system  on  their  respective  fields 
of  labor.  The  parties  were  not  at  first  very  distinct  from 
each  other  in  theological  tenets.  Each  claimed  to  be  the 
especial  champion  of  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Prayer-book, 
while  they  laid  emphasis  on  different  parts  of  it.  Biblical 
criticism  was  as  yet  dormant  in  America ;  and  both  parties 
held  to  the  Bible  with  the  same  tenacious  grasp,  as  an  in- 
fallible authority  in  all  matters  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  the- 
ological. 

The  conduct  of  worship  was  very  uniform.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  symbolic  adornments  of  the  churches,  in 
the  dress  of  the  officiating  minister,  in  his  gestures  or  post- 
ures, or  modes  of  administering  the  rites  and  offices  of 


462  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

public  worship,  by  which  one  class  of  churchmen  could  be 
distinguished  from  another.  The  difTerence  was  not  exter- 
nal, but  internal;  not  at  that  time  theological  or  ritual, 
but  practical.  The  Evangelical  laid  strongest  emphasis 
on  the  individual  reception  of  grace ;  the  High-churchman 
on  the  institutional  administration  of  grace.  The  watch- 
word of  the  one  was  experience  ;  that  of  the  other,  author- 
ity. The  one  looked  more  to  the  personal  Christian  life ; 
the  other  more  to  the  corporate  Christian  life.  It  was  in- 
evitable, therefore,  that  they  should  regard  the  same  doc- 
trine and  the  same  sacrament  difTerently. 

The  Evangelical  was  very  strenuous  in  the  subordination 
of  the  letter  to  the  spirit,  of  the  form  to  the  substance. 
He  had  great  dread  of  formalism ;  and  the  early  church 
life  of  the  regions  where  this  school  most  abounded  gave 
a  very  salutary  aspect  to  this  dread.  The  formula  went 
for  little  until  interpreted  by  the  heart  and  conscience. 
The  great  object  of  truth  and  worship  was  to  bring  the 
soul  into  direct  contact  with  its  Saviour,  and  unless  this 
were  accomplished  no  outward  reverence  was  of  any  avail. 
This  predominantly  experimental  Christianity  brought 
with  it  inevitably  a  certain  attitude  toward  various  feat- 
ures of  the  church  which  distinguished  its  votaries  from 
others.  It  became  a  bond  of  unity  with  other  Christians 
of  like  experience,  though  not  of  the  same  ecclesiastical 
household.  Affiliation  with  them  became  desirable  and 
useful;  and  not  to  mark  the  differences,  but  to  indicate 
the  resemblances,  between  the  two  was  recognized  both 
as  a  duty  and  a  privilege.  Hence  cooperative  action  with 
all  denominations  in  Bible  and  tract  and  temperance  soci- 
eties marked  the  men  of  this  mold.  They  never  swerved 
from  a  strong  attachment  to  the  principle  of  episcopacy  ; 
but  while  they  believed  the  historic  episcopate  to  be  un- 
doubtedly the  form  in  which  the  church  was  fashioned  as 


THE  EVANGELICALS.  463 

soon  as  its  organization  was  complete,  and  that  it  was  essen- 
tial to  the  best  ordering  of  the  church,  they  did  not  find 
it  a  divine  command  in  the  Scriptures,  and  regarded  it  as 
a  providential  rather  than  as  a  positive  institution. 

The  test  of  experience  ruled  here  as  in  regard  to  worship, 
sacraments,  and  dogma.  God's  abundant  blessing  on  the 
labors  of  non-Episcopal  churches  indicated  to  the  Evangel- 
icals that  these  were  not  without  the  essence  of  the  church, 
though  they  might  be  deprived  of  some  of  its  best  advan- 
tages. Hence  they  fraternized  more  fully  with  other  de- 
nominations than  their  more  exclusive  brethren.  While 
they  had  unfeigned  attachment  to  the  liturgy,  they  advo- 
cated and  practiced  freer  modes  of  worship  in  less  formal 
assemblies  than  the  stated  Sunday  congregations ;  and 
prayer-meetings  and  extemporaneous  exhortations  were 
highly  prized  as  means  of  grace,  as  by  Bishops  Griswold 
and  Channing  Moore  at  an  earlier  period,  so  at  this  time  by 
Drs.  Milnor,  Bedell,  and  Tyng.  In  regard  to  the  liturgy, 
they  held  it  to  be  thoroughly  evangelical.  They  regarded 
the  sacraments  as  means  of  grace  therein  offered  and  con- 
veyed ;  but  they  emphasized  the  element  of  faith  in  the 
recipient  as  an  essential  condition  of  benefit  from  the  same. 
The  soul's  attitude  of  acceptance  was  as  indispensable  as 
the  divine  attitude  of  proffer.  Subjective  experience  must 
enter  into  sacramental  communion.  The  whole  subject 
of  regeneration  in  baptism  was  somewhat  indistinct  and 
muddled  while  the  term  was  identified,  as  it  generally 
was,  with  moral  change  or  conversion  in  the  recipient,  and 
many  theories  were  broached  to  avoid  or  explain  the 
direct  and  positive  .statements  of  the  Baptismal  Office. 
The  hypothetical  theory,  the  charitable-hope  theory,  the 
change-of-state  theory,  were,  with  many  others,  advocated 
by  men  who  could  not  harmonize  the  fruits  of  baptism  in 
experience  with   the  unqualified  assertions  of   its  spiritual 


464  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

benefit  in  the  service.  When  the  term  was  more  accu- 
rately defined  (as  much  plater  by  the  House  of  Bishops  in 
1 871)  as  not  involving  moral  change,  as  the  witness  to 
God's  gift,  but  not  to'  the  active  reception  of  it  by  the 
baptized ;  when,  in  fine,  regeneration  was  identified  with 
divine  endowment,  and  not  necessarily  with  human  appro- 
priation of  it,  and  baptism  was  made  witness  to  an  object- 
ive fact,  and  not  to  a  subjective  experience,  then  the  Bap- 
tismal Office  ceased  to  be  an  object  of  controversy. 

This  feature  of  spiritual  experience  gave  the  key  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Evangelicals  concerning  the  ministry. 
They  held  to  its  official  authority,  but  not  to  its  official 
priestliness.  Ministers  were  authoritative  witnesses  to 
God's  grace  and  conveyers  of  the  knowledge  of  it,  but  not 
essential  mediators  of  its  application,  or  indispensable  to 
its  communication.  They  clung  with  great  tenacity  to 
Bishop  White's  position  :  "  That,  as  the  word  '  priest '  was 
never  applied  in  Scripture  to  the  Christian  ministry,  the 
word  in  the  Prayer-book  must  be  used  as  synonymous 
with,  and  as  a  contraction  for, '  presbyter.'  "  They  marked 
the  absence  of  the  term  "altar"  from  the  Communion 
Office  as  confirming  this  view,  and  were  not  fond  of  it, 
though  its  use  in  a  general  way  by  the  Methodists,  for  the 
communion  rail  and  place,  brought  it  into  general  use 
among  anti-sacerdotalists  of  all  denominations. 

In  preaching,  the  Evangelical  school  gave  supreme 
prominence  to  the  Saviour  in  everything  pertaining  to  be- 
lief or  feeling  or  conduct.  Christ  is  all :  that  was  their 
gospel.  Good  works  cannot  save  us,  ordinances  cannot, 
priestly  power  cannot.  "  Jesus  only  "  was  their  watch- 
word ;  and  the  personal  appeal,  the  direct  contact,  the  im- 
mediate communion  of  the  soul  with  him,  these  were  the 
themes  which  roused  their  eloquence  and  made  them  speak 
as  with  lips  touched  with  fire.    There  was  a  mild  tinge  of 


EVANGELICAL    THEOLOGY.  465 

Calvinism  in  most  of  this  school,  which  in  some  was  not  so 
mild ;  and  in  this  they  were  distinguished,  like  the  English 
Evangelicals,  the  Simeons,  Romaines,  and  Venns,  from  the 
Wesleys,  in  so  many  other  respects  like  them.  And  the 
explanation  is  that  they  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  English  Re- 
formers, while  the  Wesleys  referred  everything  to  the  early 
fathers  and  the  primitive  church,  before  even  Augustinian- 
ism  was  born.  Practically  they  were  not  extreme,  and  their 
hearers  were  not  racked  with  the  tortures  of  absolute  divine 
decrees  and  the  harrowing  uncertainties  of  unconditional 
election.  They  spoke  to  the  heart  and  conscience,  and 
from  these  their  response  came. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  this  school,  whatever  its  in- 
consistencies or  party  passion  or  assumptive  monopoly  of 
vital  piety,  rendered  service  of  incalculable  worth  to  the 
church's  life.  More  than  all  others  it  drew  the  common 
people,  and  roused  the  church  to  spiritual  sympathy  with 
the  general  religious  life  of  the  community.  It  divested 
it  of  that  air  of  ecclesiastical  isolation  which  once  made  it 
seem  to  be  in  the  community,  but  not  of  it ;  and  it  drew 
attention  to  the  spiritual  significance  of  its  worship,  which 
has  won  for  it  more  and  more  appreciation.  Within  as 
without  the  church,  this  school  has  permeated  and  elevated 
the  devotions  of  those  farthest  removed  from  its  special 
tenets.  Its  demand  for  the  direct  contact  of  the  soul  with 
its  personal  Lord  finds  sacramental  expression  in  the 
Eucharist  of  the  Ritualist ;  and  the  Broad-churchman,  re- 
joicing in  the  spiritual  freedom  of  a  living  organism  as  con- 
trasted with  a  constrained  subjection  to  a  mere  prescriptive 
authority,  may  well  say  of  the  Evangelical  fathers,  "  Other 
men  labored,  and  we  are  entered  into  their  labors."  The 
High-churchmen  who  contended  with  them  caught  the 
glow  of  their  zeal  and  felt  the  warmth  of  their  enthusiasm, 
and  made  the  system  for  which  they  contended,  and  in  the 


466  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

main  secured,  the  more  vital  by  reason  of  its  contact  with 
its  foe.  The  Evangehcal  prayer-meetings  and  revivals, 
which  once  appeared  so  reprehensible,  survive  in  more 
churchly  form,  but  in  essential  spirit,  in  the  parochial 
church  mission  in  which  all  schools  to-day  unite.  All 
kinds  of  churchmen  now  respond  to  the  touch  of  that  spirit 
which  fifty  years  ago  called  itself  Evangelical.  For  in  the 
contention  for  the  right  to  interpret  the  formularies  by  the 
early  Reformers,  and  to  exercise  freedom  of  action  and 
worship  in  matters  not  prescribed  by  rubrics  and  canons, 
the  Evangelical  school  gave  a  larger  interpretation  to  the 
church  system,  infused  into  it  a  spirit  of  Christian  liberty, 
and  raised  into  a  manlier  tone  the  legislation  which  threat- 
ened to  sink  into  a  mere  prescriptive  discipline.  As  a  com- 
pact party  organization  the  school  has  dissolved,  but  it  has 
by  no  means  perished.  It  lives  as  an  influence  in  almost 
every  department  of  the  church's  life,  spiritualizing  its  wor- 
ship, enlarging  its  intellectual  range,  and  strengthening  its 
practical  benevolence  by  its  spirit  of  personal  devotion  to 
individual  souls.  The  voluntary  principle  which  it  con- 
tended for  and  secured  in  its  management  of  missions  has 
survived  the  mere  occasion  which  called  it  forth,  and  has 
given  zest  and  impetus  to  all  manner  o^church  work,  only 
remotely  akin  to  the  views  of  the  early  Low-churchmen. 
Sisterhoods  flourish,  guilds  grow,  brotherhoods  extend, 
through  that  right  of  voluntary  association  which  these 
men,  through  much  contention,  left  as  the  church's  heri- 
tage. "They  builded  better  than  they  knew."  And 
one  other  service  they  rendered,  not  exclusively,  but  in 
large  degree,  and  that  is  the  awakening  of  the  laity  to  a 
sense  of  their  ministry  in  the  church,  and  securing  their 
cooperation  in  advancing  its  spiritual  and  benevolent  in- 
terests. The  structure  of  the  General  Convention  had  en- 
listed from  the  beginning  the  interest  of  the  laity  in  legisla- 


PROMINENT  LOW-CHURCHMEN.  467 

tion.  Francis  S.  Key,  Jay,  Binney,  Hugh  Davy  Evans,  are 
types  of  men  who  have  guided  the  church  in  Convention. 
But  the  direct  personal  appeal  of  the  Evangelicals  secured 
the  earliest  efforts  of  laymen  in  the  strictly  religious 
province ;  from  which  seed  the  after-harvest  has  been  so 
prolific  and  salutary. 

The  men  who  led  in  this  movement  were  the  peers  of 
any  in  the  church.  Of  the  bishops  there  were  Meade  and 
Johns  of  Virginia,  Burgess  of  Maine,  Eastburn  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, Henshaw  of  Rhode  Island,  Lee  of  Delaware, 
Washington  Lee  of  Iowa,  Chase  of  Illinois,  Elliott  of 
Georgia,  Polk  of  Louisiana,  Smith  of  Kentucky,  Alonzo 
Potter  and  Stevens  of  Pennsylvania.  Of  the  presbyters, 
Drs.  Milnor,  Bedell,  Johns,  and  Tyng  ^  were  most  promi- 
nent, by  reason  of  their  extraordinary  pulpit  power  and  the 
vast  numbers  whom  they  gathered  into  the  communion  and 
parish  life  of  the  church.  Beside  them  stood  John  S.  Stone 
of  Brooklyn  and  Boston,  Dr.  Crocker  of  Providence,  and 
Dr.  Sparrow  of  the  Virginia  Seminary,  the  profoundest 
theological  mind  of  the  party.  Then,  too,  there  were 
Dr.  Richard  Newton  of  Philadelphia,  who  swept  the  chil- 
dren into  the  church  and  developed  the  Sunday-school 
into  a  power ;  and  Alexander  H.  Vinton  of  the  whole 
church,  a  man  of  the  mold  of  Daniel  Webster,  "  tohis, 
teres  atqiic  rotundns ;''  and  Samuel  Clark,  the  brother  of 
Bishop  Clark  of  Rhode  Island,  who  himself  still  stands  as 
an  advance-guard  of  the  principles  established  and  the 
liberties  gained  by  this  school.  Space  and  time  would 
alike  fail  to  tell  of  Ridgely  and  Suddards  and  Cutler  and 
Andrews  and  May,  and  later  of  Francis  L.  Hawks  and 
Heman  Dyer,  and  Drs.  Goodwin  and  Butler,  and  John  Cot- 

1  Dr.  Tyng  was  always  considered  a  typical  Low-churchman,  but  Bishop 
Mcllvaine  once  remarked  of  him  :  "  When  the  church  is  attacked  he  is  like 
a  tlierniometer  plunged  in  boiling  water,  shooting  at  once  up  to  the  highest 
point."     (Dyer,  "  Records  of  an  Active  Life,"  p.  231.) 


468  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

ton  Smith;  all  of  them  men  of  profound  influence,  arising 
from  the  possession  of  native  power  and  high  character. 
It  was  at  one  time  thought  that  this  school  would  be  the 
most  powerful  and  prominent  of  any  in  the  church.  As 
an  organization,  from  its  very  nature,  that  could  hardly 
be.  Its  aim  was  not  the  construction  of  the  wheels  of 
progress,  but  the  quickening  of  the  spirit  which  should 
animate  them.  In  this  it  was  largely  successful.  Like 
the  leaven,  the  party  disappears  to  reappear  in  a  church 
life  raised  and  ennobled  by  it. 

When  we  turn  to  their  ecclesiastical  opponents  it  is  not 
to  be  assumed  that  the  elements  most  pronounced  among 
the  Evangelicals  were  wholly  lacking  in  High-churchmen. 
A  high  spiritual  elevation  marked  many  of  their  leaders, 
as  well  as  Hobart,  their  spiritual  father.  Who  more  de- 
voted than  Otey  or  more  intrepid  than  Kemper;  wiser 
than  De  Lancey  or  nobler  than  Whittingham  ?  As  we 
look  at  the  list  of  the  chief  men  who  led  and  established 
this  party  we  are  forced  to  fuid  some  other  explanation  of 
their  movement  than  an  effort  at  obstructive  repression  of 
spiritual  freedom,  or  the  establishment  of  mechanical  and 
exclusive  ecclesiasticism.  Neither  Brownell  nor  Williams 
of  Connecticut,  nor  Henry  U.  Onderdonk  of  Pennsylvania, 
nor  generous  and  magnetic  Doane  of  New  Jersey,  nor 
learned  Odenheimer,  his  successor,  nor  Upfold  of  Indiana, 
nor  Green  of  Mississippi,  nor  Lay  of  Easton,  nor  Wain- 
wright  and  Horatio  Potter  of  New  York,  can  be  rightly 
understood  by  the  application  of  such  a  formula. 

These  men  were  the  exponents  of  a  movement  which  is 
founded  on  the  belief  of  the  importance  of  institutional  re- 
ligion. Their  efforts  and  measures  find  their  explanation 
as  endeavors  to  make  the  church  authoritative  in  its  rule 
and  teaching,  and  to  vindicate  it  as  a  divine  institution  as 
distinguished  from  a  voluntary  religious  association.    They 


HIGH-CHURCHMANSHIP.  469 

recognized  both  the  defect  and  the  danger  of  unregulated 
religious  enthusiasm,  and  the  necessity,  for  its  proper  regula- 
tion, of  ancient  precedent  and  primitive  organization.  Their 
idea  was  a  church  as  distinguished  from  a  denomination, 
by  its  being  an  inheritance  instead  of  a  manufacture;  a 
regulative  discipline  in  worship  and  creed,  instead  of  a 
modern  expression  of  individual  convictions ;  a  valid  repro- 
duction of  primitive  usage,  and  a  trustworthy  guide  to  the 
spiritual  life  which  it  was  its  object  to  awaken  and  sustain 
by  means  of  the  divinely  ordered  sacraments.  In  its  doc- 
trine of  the  sacraments  it  tended  to  divert  men's  attention 
from  themselves  and  their  emotions,  and  fix  it  upon  God's 
attitude  and  intention  as  revealed  and  ministered  in  these 
means  of  grace.  It  looked  fixedly,  in  fine,  on  the  object- 
ive side  of  religion  as  a  divine  revelation  and  a  positive  in- 
stitution. It  was  distrustful  of  all  that  seemed  to  overlook 
the  continuity  of  its  connection  with  the  church  of  apostolic 
times. 

There  was  in  this  attitude  a  reaction  from  the  popular 
statement  that  religion  is  simply  a  matter  between  man 
and  his  Maker.  To  this  school  it  was  that ;  but  it  involved 
also  a  relation  to  the  household  of  faith.  There  was  a  cor- 
porate as  well  as  an  individual  life  in  Christianity,  a  union 
with  the  body  of  Christ  as  well  as  with  Christ  the  head. 
The  union  with  the  head  was  to  be  accomplished  in  the 
body,  therefore  the  body  must  be  organic,  and  relation  to 
it  must  be  a  duty  as  well  as  a  choice.  Hence  the  .stress 
laid  upon  legitimacy  of  orders  and  valid  administration  of 
the  sacraments. 

The  expression  of  these  fundamental  principles  was 
doubtless  sometimes  narrow  and  extreme.  They  were 
looked  at,  perhaps,  generally  from  their  exclusive  rather 
than  their  inclusive  side ;  but  they  were  in  reality  a  vin- 
dication of  spiritual  law  as  distinguished  from  religious 


470  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

opinion,  and,  rightly  administered,  tended  to  the  establish- 
ment of  spiritual  freedom  from  the  tyranny  of  sectarian  rule. 

This  movement  to  indicate  the  divine  authority  of  the 
church  was  thus  not  a  mere  impulse  of  ecclesiastical  pre- 
tension. It  came  in  legitimately  in  a  country  where  the 
church  was  left  to  vindicate  and  sustain  itself  without  the 
least  aid  or  countenance  from  the  state.  There  was  in 
America  a  new  condition  of  affairs  in  the  history  of  even 
Protestant  Christianity.  In  Europe  the  relations  of  church 
and  state  were  fixed  and  intimate.  In  Lutheran  Germany, 
as  well  as  in  Reformed  England,  not  only  support  but 
countenance  was  given  by  the  civil  to  the  ecclesiastical 
powers.  "  Here,  for  the  first  time  since  Constantine,  the 
religious  element  had  been  left  absolutely  without  restraint, 
and  conditions  of  ecclesiastical  development  had  been  sup- 
plied such  as  exist  nowhere  else  in  Christendom.  Each 
religious  organization  had  been  allowed  free  scope,  to  un- 
fold according  to  its  own  interior  law,  and  solve  after  its 
own  way  its  distinctive  ecclesiastical  problem.  The  result 
has  been  a  quickening  of  ecclesiastical  activity,  and  an  im- 
pulse to  ecclesiastical  development.  It  is  certain  that  the 
ecclesiastical  life  of  the  middle  ages  was  greatly  stimulated 
by  the  prevailing  political  anarch}^ ;  and  it  seems  not  un- 
likely that  the  increasing  fluctuation  of  our  own  political 
life  may  have  disposed  some  to  look  with  more  favor  on 
stable  ecclesiastical  forms."  ^ 

Such  general  considerations  found  their  special  illustra- 
tion in  the  development  of  the  High-church  party.  Ac- 
cording to  its  conception,  the  church  as  ecclesiastical  must 
be  clearly  defined  and  established,  and  the  relation  of  the 
individual  to  it  made  dominant.     Out  of  the  midst  of  con- 


1  See  "  Religion  in  America,"  by  Professor  J.  L.  Diman,  in  "  North 
American  Review,"  January,  1876;  also  in  "  Memorial  Volume  of  J.  Lewis 
Diman,"  p.  242. 


HIGH-CHURCH   THEOLOGY.  471 

flicting  sects  there  should  arise  an  institution  more  per- 
manent, more  positive,  more  primitive,  which,  claiming 
apostolic  lineage,  should  maintain  the  ancient  prerogative 
of  fostering  and  ruling  the  religious  life  of  men.  Thus, 
while  the  Evangelicals  emphasized  personal  redemption, 
the  High-churchmen  emphasized  the  spiritual  kingdom. 
Individuals  must  become  incorporate  into  that  supreme 
and  spacious  commonwealth,  without  whose  wholesome 
restraints  and  benign  supervision  all  bonds  would  be  re- 
laxed, all  spiritual  progress  would  falter,  and  all  highest 
aims  of  Christian  attainment  or  conquest  fail  of  accom- 
plishment. 

Out  of  this  general  idea  of  the  church  the  special  views 
and  methods  of  the  High-church  party  sprang.  They 
were  accused  of  preaching  the  church  rather  than  Christ ; 
but  they  preached  the  church  as  the  body  of  Christ,  in 
which  his  Spirit  especially  dwelt  and  chiefly  manifested  its 
power.  They  did  not  advocate  the  church  as  a  substitute 
for  Christ,  but  as  the  vehicle  of  his  own  ordaining  for  the 
impartation  and  sustaining  of  his  life.  But  the  persistence 
with  which  they  cried,  "  Hear  the  church,"  produced  the 
impression  that  they  did  not  heed  the  call,  "  Hear  what 
the  Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches."  The  odium  was  at- 
tached to  them  of  exalting  a  visible  organization  into  the 
place  of  an  invisible  power.  Externalism  was  their  crying 
sin  in  the  eyes  of  the  opposite  party.  The  growing  atten- 
tion to  the  details  of  worship,  and  the  ordering  of  churches, 
and  the  observance  of  fasts  and  feasts,  gave  rise  to  the 
charge  of  formalism.  "  There  is  one  body,"  cried  the  one  ; 
"There  is  one  Spirit,"  responded  the  other;  and  neither 
seemed  to  think  it  possible  that  both  might  be  united  in 
the  "  one  hope  of  their  calling."  What  might  have  been 
conceived  as  parallel  streams  were  regarded  as  counter- 
currents.    The  increasing  strength  of  the  church  imparted 


472  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

vigor  to  each  tendency,  and  the  waves  ran  high  when  the 
conflicting  currents  met. 

The  party,  however,  gathered  constant  strength  from 
the  younger  men,  especially  those  who  were  educated  at 
the  General  Theological  Seminary,  which,  situated  in 
New  York,  had  felt  the  molding  influence  of  Bishop  Ho- 
bart  from  the  start.  Its  professors,  with  the  exception  of 
Dr.  Turner  and  Dr.  Bird  Wilson,  stood  on  essentially  the 
same  ground.  Moore  and  Seabury,  and  McVickar  and 
Johnson,  and  Ogilby  and  Whittingham,  left  this  impress  on 
their  pupils.  The  Rev.  Milo  Mahan,  coming  after  them, 
was  one  of  the  strongest  and  ablest  advocates  of  High- 
churchmanship.  The  influence  of  the  powerful  corporation 
of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  as  well  as  of  the  bishop  of 
the  diocese,  was  on  this  side.  Bishop  De  Lancey  made  it 
regnant  in  western  New  York.  As  far  north  as  Boston, 
the  Rev.  William  Croswell  made  it  honorable  by  the  beauty 
of  his  character  and  the  affluence  of  his  gifts.  Connecticut, 
of  course,  stood  by  its  hereditary  churchmanship.  Mary- 
land, by  the  election  of  Bishop  Whittingham,  emphasized 
this  element,  which  had  been  present,  if  dormant,  in  its 
earlier  bishops,  Claggett  and  Kemp.  Otey  and  Kemper 
infused  its  tone  into  their  apostolic  labors  in  the  South- 
west and  Northwest.  Breck  and  Adams  incorporated  the 
associate  mission  at  Nashotah  as  its  exponent.  A  majority  of 
the  young  and  enthusiastic  clergy,  who  were  the  graduates 
of  Dr.  Muhlenberg's  collegiate  institution  on  Long  Island, 
embraced  the  system,  and  carried  it  with  them  to  their 
scattered  schools  and  parishes ;  notably  Dr.  Kerfoot,  after- 
ward the  Bishop  of  Pittsburg.  But  perhaps  its  most 
commanding  and  influential  representative  was  Bishop 
G.  W.  Doane,  of  New  Jersey.  He  was  a  man  to  carry 
weight  by  the  force  of  his  character,  the  spell  of  his  elo- 
quence, and  the  majesty  of  his  appearance.      He  was  full 


BISHOP  G.    IV.  DOANE.  473 

of  gifts  and  graces.  If  Whittingham  may  be  considered 
the  learned  counselor,  Doane  was  assuredly  the  powerful 
advocate,  of  this  school.  He  was  instinct  with  life.  He 
struck  at  the  roots  of  church  life  when  he  established  and 
made  successful  St.  Mary's  School  for  Girls  at  Burlington, 
whereby  he  spread  the  influence  of  the  church  system 
through  hundreds  of  families  in  the  persons  of  the  mothers 
of  the  coming  generation,  who  were  his  enthusiastic  ad- 
mirers. He  was  no  mean  poet,  and  added  some  of  the 
noblest  hymns  to  the  literature  of  the  church,  and  was  the 
first  to  introduce  Keble's  "  Christian  Year  "  to  American 
churchmen.  He  may  have  seen  visions  and  dreamed 
dreams  which  were  impossible  of  realization,  and  which 
his  lack  of  practical  talent  made  him  incompetent  to  put 
into  permanent  and  enduring  form;  but  his  generous 
nature,  his  genuine  sincerity,  and  his  commanding  talents 
made  him  magnetic,  and  imparted  a  charm  to  his  act  and 
speech  which  was  itself  a  power.  Such  natures  must  be 
dominant,  and  hence  opponents  called  him  domineering; 
but  he  could  no  more  repress  the  assertiveness  of  his 
churchmanship  than  a  bird  can  repress  its  song.  Clouds 
which  threatened  at  one  time  to  settle  upon  him  and 
obscure  his  influence  were  dispersed,  not  more  by  the  un- 
rivaled skill  of  his  diplomacy  than  by  the  commanding 
assurance  of  his  integrity.  For  his  character  was  built 
on  solid  foundations,  though  it  displayed  the  traits  of  a 
decorated  architecture.  His  courage  was  undaunted  and 
his  conviction  keen.  Take  him  for  all  in  all,  he  was  a  tower 
of  strength  to  the  High-church  school. 

That  school  received  an  impetus  from  the  Oxford  Move- 
ment, by  which,  on  the  whole,  it  stood;  but  this  increased 
the  alarm  of  its  opponents,  and  caused  some  of  its  follow- 
ers to  draw  back.  The  publication  of  Tract  90  produced 
a  ferment  in  America,  as  in  England.    The  Roman  Catho- 


474  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

lie  bishop,  Dr.  Kendrick,  publicly  appealed  to  the  bishops 
to  submit  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  on  the  ground  that  the 
Oxford  tracts  had  yielded  almost  every  ground  of  dispute 
between  the  two  communions;  and  Bishop  Hopkins,  of 
Vermont,  always  ready  for  controversy,  and  delighting  in 
it,  made  an  indignant  reply,  and  in  American  fashion 
challenged  Bishop  Kendrick  to  an  oral  discussion.  But  it 
was  the  Carey  ordination  in  New  York  which  sounded  a 
note  of  alarm  which  sent  a  shudder  through  the  church,  and 
stirred  Bishop  Hopkins  to  write  his  celebrated  "  Letters  on 
the  Novelties  which  Disturb  our  Peace,"  w^hich  publication 
later  on  somewhat  disturbed  his  own. 

The  ordination  of  Arthur  Carey,  involving,  as  it  did,  the 
first  official  recognition  of  the  views  of  Tract  90  as  legitimate 
in  the  church,  created  an  impression  altogether  out  of  keep- 
ing with  the  importance  of  the  candidate.  He  was,  indeed, 
a  young  man  of  marked  ability  and  singular  sanctity  of 
character,  a  graduate  of  the  General  Theological  Seminary, 
forced  into  premature  notice  ;  for  he  graduated  in  1842,  too 
young  for  ordination.  When  he  came  up  for  examination 
in  1843  it  w^as  found  that  he  accepted  the  teaching  of  Tract 
90,  and  believed  in  the  reconciliation  of  the  Decrees  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  with  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  though  it 
is  said  that  he  suggested  that  it  was  the  Decrees  which 
required  explanation,  and  not  the  Articles.  The  Bishop  of 
New  York  (B.  T.  Onderdonk)  and  his  examining  chaplains 
were  satisfied  of  his  essential  orthodoxy  ;  but  two  prominent 
presbyters  (Dr.  Henry  Anthon  and  Dr.  Hugh  Smith)  pro- 
tested, and  at  the  ordination  service  in  St.  Mark's  Church 
repeated  their  protest  in  public.  The  ordination  w^ent  on, 
and  it  was  held  that  it  committed  the  bishop  and  his 
examiners  to  the  views  of  the  candidate.  It  did  not.  It 
only  established  the  fact  that  in  their  judgment  the  views 
were  permissible  within  the  comprehension  of  the  church, 


THE    CA  RE  V  OKDINA  TION.  475 

and  maintained  the  constitutional  right  of  the  bishop  to 
ordain  when  he  and  the  constituted  authorities  were 
satisfied. 

In  the  heat  of  the  time  it  could  not  be  seen,  but  the 
decision  was  a  protest  against  personal  and  partisan  rule. 
Even  Dr.  Stephen  H.  Tyng  found  in  it  no  cause  of  present- 
ment against  the  bishop  ;  and  Bishop  Hopkins,  who  opposed 
it,  deemed  it  objectionable  as  an  error  of  judgment  only. 
Nevertheless  the  whole  church  was  set  on  fire.  Pamphlets 
descended  in  showers.  So  great  was  the  agitation  that 
Bishop  H.  U.  Onderdonk,  of  Pennsylvania,  deemed  it  in- 
expedient for  Bishop  Hopkins  to  deliver  his  lectures  on 
the  British  Reformation  in  Philadelphia,  lest  they  should 
increase  the  strife.  For  this  he  was  denounced  as  a  ma- 
lignant, and  not  blessed  as  a  peacemaker. 

From  this  time  on,  until  the  General  Convention  of  1844, 
the  Oxford  Movement  was  the  great  and  constant  theme 
of  sermons,  newspaper  articles,  and  diocesan  discussions. 
Before  that  Convention  assembled,  however,  an  event  had 
occurred  which  threw  a  dark  shadow  over  it,  and  intensi- 
fied partisan  feeling  yet  more.  Bishop  Henry  U.  Onder- 
donk had  been  charged  in  his  own  diocese  with  habits  of 
intemperance,  with  a  view  to  bringing  him  to  trial  before 
his  peers.  The  bishop  with  manly  frankness  acknowledged 
the  truth  of  the  accusation,  and  explained  it.  He  had  first 
used  stimulants  as  a  remedy  in  subduing  severe  bodily 
pain,  and  the  habit  had  grown  upon  him  and  given  occa- 
sion for  scandal.  He  asked  the  sentence  of  his  brethren 
without  the  formality  of  a  trial,  and  placed  his  resignation 
of  the  jurisdiction  of  his  diocese  in  the  hands  of  the  House 
of  Bishops.  The  committee  to  whom  the  sad  matter  w^as 
committed  was  not  a  partisan  one.  It  included  Bishops 
Brownell,  Ives,  and  Hopkins,  as  well  as  Bishops  Chase  and 
Meade ;  and  their  report  favored  the  acceptance  of  the  res- 


476  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

ignation.  In  response  to  Bishop  Onderdonk's  request  for 
such  sentence  as  might  be  deemed  proper,  the  presiding 
bishop  was  empowered  to  pronounce,  in  the  presence  of 
the  House  of  Bishops,  a  sentence  suspending  him  from  all 
public  exercise  of  the  offices  and  functions  of  the  sacred 
ministry. 

This  sentence,  excelling  in  severity,  and  declared  by  the 
distinguished  legal  authority  of  Horace  Binney  to  be  not 
only  unjust,  but  uncanonical  and  illegal,  was  submitted  to 
without  protest  by  the  bishop,  who,  if  he  had  shown  frailty, 
had  displayed  a  noble  manliness  of  acknowledgment  and 
manifested  a  sincere  repentance.  He  forthwith  gav^e  up  all 
use  of  stimulants ;  and  such  was  the  subsequent  unsullied 
sanctity  of  his  life  that  in  1856  his  sentence  was  revoked. 
It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  heated 
state  of  party  feeling  had  unconsciously  much  to  do  with 
the  whole  course  of  the  affair.  There  was  as  indubitably 
a  godly  jealousy  for  the  honor  of  the  church,  which  refused 
to  suffer  ecclesiastical  dignity  to  shelter  personal  unworthi- 
ness,  and  which  emphasized  the  importance  of  vindicating 
the  necessity  of  absolute  integrity  of  character  in  its  high- 
est officers.  But  a  greater  leniency  would  surely  have  been 
shown  had  the  theological  aspects  of  the  case  been  want- 
ing. Henry  U.  Onderdonk  was  a  rare  man.  He  com- 
mended himself  to  the  confidence  of  his  predecessor.  Bishop 
White,  whom  he  had  been  chosen  to  assist,  and  of  Bishop 
Alonzo  Potter,  who  was  elected  to  supplant  him.  What- 
ever his  own  views,  he  was  fair-minded  and  noble-minded, 
a  man  to  be  relied  on  by  those  from  whom  he  differed,  as 
well  as  by  those  with  whom  he  agreed.  But  for  the  frailty 
so  insidiously  induced  by  baffling  a  painful  disease,  he 
would  have  been  conspicuous  as  one  of  the  brightest  lights 
of  the  church  in  his  day.  More  charity  and  less  caution 
might  well  have  marked  the  action  of  his  peers. 


GENERAL    CONVENTION  OF  IS44.  477 

The  General  Convention  of  1844,  of  which  this  sad  his- 
tory forms  a  part,  was  a  very  stirring  one.  The  long 
debates,  extending  from  day  to  day,  on  the  Oxford  Move- 
ment somewhat  cleared  the  air,  but  gave  rise  to  no  definite 
action  concerning  it.  The  only  result  was  a  resolution 
declaring  "  the  liturgy,  offices,  and  articles  of  the  church 
sufficient  exponents  of  her  sense  of  the  essential  doctrines 
of  Holy  Scripture  ;  and  that  the  canons  of  the  church  afi"ord 
ample  means  of  discipline  and  correction  for  all  who  depart 
from  her  standards;  and,  further,  that  the  General  Conven- 
tion is  not  a  suitable  tribunal  for  the  trial  and  censure  of, 
and  that  the  church  is  not  responsible  for,  the  errors 
of  individuals,  whether  they  are  members  of  this  church 
or  otherwise."  There  were  several  special  measures  which 
diverted  the  attention  from  the  general  theological  situation, 
and  thus  left  the  Convention  uncommitted  to  one  side  or 
the  other.  In  view  of  rumors  concerning  the  unsoundness 
of  the  General  Theological  Seminary,  a  formal  visitation  of 
that  institution  by  the  bishops,  in  their  capacity  as  visitors, 
was  decreed.  It  was  made,  and  resulted  in  a  report  of 
confidence.  The  case  of  the  confirmation  of  Rev.  Francis 
L.  Hawks,  historiographer  of  the  church,  as  Bishop  elect 
of  Mississippi,  was  the  occasion  of  a  long  and  brilliant  de- 
bate of  a  week's  duration,  which  closed  with  a  speech  of 
such  unrivaled  eloquence  by  the  candidate  himself  as  to 
leave  the  Convention  in  a  state  of  excitement  too  bewil- 
dering for  wise  decision,  so  that  the  matter  was  relegated  to 
the  judgment  of  the  diocese  itself.^  The  consecration  of 
the  three  bishops  (Chase  of  New  Hampshire,  Cobb  of 
Alabama,  and  C.  S.  Hawks  of  Missouri)  during  the  session, 
and  the  nomination  of  the  three  missionary  bishops  (Boone 

1  Dr.  Hawks  was  sul:>sequently  triumphantly  reelected,  but  declined,  as  he 
did  afterward  an  election  to  the  diocese  of  Rhode  Island.  As  an  eloquent 
preacher  he  had  no  peer  during  his  life. 


478  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

for  China,  Freeman  for  Arkansas,  and  Southgate  for  Tur- 
key), who  were  consecrated  immediately  after  the  adjourn- 
ment, turned  the  minds  of  many  from  the  consideration  of 
polemics  to  the  region  of  practical  affairs  and  missionary 
propaganda.  The  storm  passed  with  less  violence  than 
had  been  anticipated. 

It  was  soon  to  gather  in  concentrated  form  in  the  trial  of 
Bishop  B.  T.  Onderdonk,  of  New  York.  Into  the  particular 
features  of  that  trial  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter.  The  bish- 
ops were  reluctant  to  undertake  it ;  but  the  presentment  of 
a  bishop  by  three  of  their  number,  on  the  charge  of  un- 
chaste behavior,  rendered  action  imperative.  It  has  been 
surmised  that  had  there  been  an  acknowledgment  by  the 
accused,  before  the  trial, of  indiscretions  which  had  been  mis- 
interpreted as  improprieties,  no  trial  would  have  occurred. 
The  treatment  of  his  brother  of  Pennsylvania  does  not 
seem  to  warrant  such  a  conclusion.  There  was  generally 
a  stern  determination  to  vindicate  the  moral  status  of  the 
episcopate  in  the  face  of  high  ecclesiastical  claims ;  and  the 
rumors  of  gross  fault  were  such  as  to  furnish  an  opportu- 
nity which  seemed  to  involve  an  obligation.  Subsequent 
events  showed  that  the  Diocesan  Convention  of  New  York 
would  not  have  presented  their  bishop  for  trial.  But  at 
the  recent  General  Convention  a  canon  had  been  adopted 
giving  the  right  of  presentment  to  any  three  bishops,  as 
well  as  to  the  bishop's  own  diocese.  This  canon  had 
been  proposed  as  early  as  1835  by  Bishop  Hopkins,  as  a 
step  toward  making  a  bishop  amenable  to  his  peers ;  but 
it  set  up  a  roving  commission  of  inquiry  which  was  soon 
seen  to  work  disastrously,  and  such  action  of  the  bishops 
as  it  authorized  has  since  been  confined  to  the  three 
bishops  in  nearest  proximity  to  the  accused.  Now,  how- 
ever, by  his  peers,  on  the  9th  of  November,  the  present- 
ment of  the  Bishop  of  New  York  was  formally  made.    The 


ECCLESIASTICAL    TRIALS. 


479 


trial  began  on  the  loth  of  December,  and  continued  until 
the  3d  of  January. 

The  accused  never  flinched  from  the  assertion  of  his  in- 
nocence, which  he  maintained  till  the  day  of  his  death.  He 
was  ably  defended,  but  the  court  of  seventeen  bishops 
found  him  guilty  by  a  majority  of  eleven  to  six.  Those 
who  voted  for  acquittal  were  obliged  to  join  with  their 
opponents  in  a  vote  for  indefinite  suspension  from  office, 
in  order  to  avoid  a  sentence  of  deposition,  w^hich  a  major- 
ity of  the  court  favored.  Bishop  Onderdonk  was,  in  con- 
sequence, suspended,  and  never  restored,  though  efforts  in 
that  direction  were  made  by  the  New  York  diocese.  It 
was  in  1852  that  Dr.  Wainwright  was  made  "provisional 
bishop,"  and  up  to  that  time  the  diocese  was  left  a  prey  to 
faction.  The  battle  was  bitter  between  the  supporters  and 
the  opposers  of  the  suspended  bishop.  Bishop  Hopkins,  in 
the  "  Protestant  Churchman,"  on  the  one  hand,  and  Dr. 
Samuel  Seabury,  editor  of  the  "  Churchman,"  on  the  other, 
spared  nothing  of  the  sharpness  of  controversy,  embittered 
by  both  party  and  personal  prejudice.  It  was  the  sad  evi- 
dence of  a  vigorous  household  divided  against  itself.  It  is 
as  impossible  here  as  in  the  case  of  his  brother  of  Pennsyl- 
vania to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  court  could  not 
escape  the  influence  of  theological  and  ecclesiastical  dis- 
sensions. This  was  not  characteristic  of  one  party  only ; 
both  were  shaking  with  the  same  malaria.  It  is  equally 
impossible  to  doubt  that  the  sentence  expressed  the  honest 
conviction  of  men  set  for  the  defense  of  the  purity  of  the 
gospel  ministry.  The  suspended  bishop  had  the  satisfaction 
of  knowing  that  the  great  body  of  the  people  of  New  York 
persistently  maintained  his  innocence,  and  that  he  retained 
the  confidence  of  some  of  the  first  bishops  of  the  church. 

The  third  ecclesiastical  trial  of  a  bishop  was  not  in  real- 
ity a  trial,  though  it  gained  the  reputation  of  one.    It  was 


480  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

rather  a  prolonged  effort  to  secure  a  trial  on  the  one  side, 
and  to  defeat  it  on  the  other.  Bishop  Doane,  of  New- 
Jersey,  had  been  forced  into  bankruptcy  in  his  attempt 
to  found  and  foster  Burlington  College  for  the  sons,  and 
St.  Mary's  School  for  the  daughters,  of  the  church.  Like 
many  a  man  of  noble  ideas,  he  lacked  the  financial  skill  to 
embody  them  in  a  successful  institution.  The  Diocesan 
Convention  of  New  Jersey  had  refused  a  proposed  in- 
vestigation. The  three  bishops,  Meade,  Mcllvaine,  and 
Burgess,  than  whom  three  purer  never  sat  upon  an 
episcopal  bench,  felt  it  imperative  for  the  honor  of  the 
church  that  an  investigation  should  be  had ;  for  rumors  of 
dishonesty,  or  carelessness  amounting  to  it,  were  abroad. 
It  was  utterly  repugnant  and  distressing  to  a  man  of  the 
mold  of  Bishop  Doane  to  be  summoned  to  the  bar  of  the 
church  for  moral  delinquency.  The  nobility  of  his  nature 
recoiled  from  such  an  accusation  even.  He  was  determined 
that  he  would  not  be  presented  to  his  peers  on  such  a 
charge  if  it  could  be  avoided,  and  that  he  would,  to  use 
his  own  phrase,  "  make  the  trial  of  a  bishop  hard."  There 
is  no  doubt  but  that  he  prejudiced  his  cause  in  the  eyes  of 
many  by  this  stand.  It  was  looked  upon  as  another  bluff 
movement  of  episcopal  assumption.  No  matter ;  he  be- 
lieved it  was  essential  for  the  stability  of  the  church,  and 
took  his  stand  accordingly.  He  protested  against  the  right 
of  the  three  bishops  to  suggest  to  his  diocese  the  calling  of 
a  special  Convention  to  consider  the  case.  The  Conven- 
tion was,  however,  called,  and  declared  an  inquiry  unneces- 
sary. A  presentment  by  the  bishops  was  then  made,  and 
the  trial  was  appointed  for  June  26,  1852.  It  was,  how- 
ever, postponed  until  October,  in  order  to  allow  the  at- 
tendance of  the  bishops  at  the  Jubilee  Celebration  of  the 
Venerable  S.  P.  G.  in  London.  In  the  interim,  in  July, 
the  New  Jersey  Convention  had,   after  taking  evidence, 


DEFECTION  OF  BISHOP  IVES.  48 1 

fully  exonerated  their  bishop.  The  court  assembled  Octo- 
ber 7th,  and  Bishop  Doane  resisted  all  further  proceedings 
by  it,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  been  exonerated  by  the 
Diocesan  Convention,  in  July,  on  most  of  the  charges,  and 
that  a  canonically  called  Convention  would  examine  what 
remained.  The  court,  by  a  vote  of  seven  to  six,  conceded 
the  bishop's  plea.  A  third  presentment  was  made,  but 
when  a  court  of  twenty-one  bishops  assembled  in  Camden, 
in  September,  1853,  to  take  action  upon  it,  such  legal  points 
were  raised  that  a  committee  appointed  to  consider  the 
matter  unanimously  reported  in  favor  of  dismissing  the 
presentment  and  discharging  the  respondent.  The  court 
unanimously  concurred  in  the  report  of  the  committee, 
though  vindicating  the  good  faith  of  the  presenters ;  and 
thus  the  so-called  trial  of  Bishop  Doane  was  no  trial,  and 
he  never  pleaded  to  any  charge  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of 
Bishops.  1 

During  the  years  of  this  struggle  a  notable  event  in  re- 
lation to  the  episcopate  had  occurred  at  the  South.  Bishop 
Ives,  of  North  Carolina,  resigned  his  office  and  seceded  to 
the  Church  of  Rome.  It  was  a  unique  event,  no  other 
bishop  in  the  whole  Anglican  communion  having  ever  be- 
fore or  since  taken  such  a  step.  The  announcement  of  it 
was  made  in  a  letter  to  his  diocese  dated  at  Rome,  De- 
cember 22,  1852,  whose  closing  sentence  was:  "  I  hereby 
resign  into  your  hands  my  office  as  Bishop  of  North  Caro- 
lina ;  and,  further,  I  am  determined  to  make  my  submission 
to  the  Catholic  Church." 

The  act  was  the  culmination  of  several  years  of  vacilla- 
tion, wherein  the  bishop  had  alternately  alarmed  and  reas- 
sured his  diocese,  now  giving  assurances  and  now  retracting 

1  The  trial  of  Bishop  Smith,  of  Kentucky,  in  his  own  diocese,  on  a  charge  of 
inveracity,  resulted  yet  more  grotesquely  than  the  fiasco  in  New  Jersey.  The 
court,  chosen  by  the  diocese,  returned  the  verdict  "  Guilty,  but  without  the 
least  criminality." 


482  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

them  in  a  manner  which  plainly  showed  the  deep  perturba- 
tion of  his  mind.  His  Convention  had  appointed  a  com- 
mittee of  investigation,  and  he  had  met  it  with  explanations 
of  his  course  as  arising  from  a  desire  to  bring  about  a 
union  of  the  Roman,  Greek,  Anglican,  and  American 
churches,  which  he  had  become  satisfied  was  impracticable. 
Resolutions  which  had  been  introduced,  expressing  a  want 
of  confidence,  and  asking  for  his  resignation,  were  with- 
drawn. The  purpose  of  presenting  him  to  the  General  Con- 
vention for  trial  was  withheld.  He  went  to  Europe  for  a 
vacation  of  six  months  in  the  early  autumn  of  1852,  and, 
without  further  notice  to  his  diocese,  before  sailing  left  in 
the  hands  of  Archbishop  Hughes,  of  New  York,  his  abjura- 
tion of  the  faith  in  which  he  had  been  bred  and  exercised 
his  office.  His  church  heard  of  it  from  Rome,  where  he 
submitted  to  the  Roman  obedience.  At  the  following 
General  Convention  of  1853  he  was,  under  the  action  of  a 
special  canon,  pronounced  "  ipso  facto  deposed  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  from  the  office  of  a  bishop  in  the  church  of 
God,  and  from  all  the  rights,  privileges,  powers,  and  digni- 
ties thereunto  pertaining."  This  sentence  was  pronounced 
with  due  formality  by  the  presiding  bishop,  sitting  in  his 
chair,  in  the  presence  of  both  houses. 

This  was  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  secessions  to  Rome 
occasioned  by  the  stir  of  the  Oxford  Movement.  Others 
had  gone,  but  the  loss  had  not  been  great.  Some,  "  lovely 
and  of  good  report,"  had  been  swept  off  their  feet  by  the 
new  swelling  tide ;  but  thpy  had  had  small  following,  and 
hardly  numbered  more  than  fifty.  The  action  of  Bishop 
Ives  provoked  reaction,  made  the  ardent  souls  more  sober, 
and  tended  to  clear  the  air  of  much  murky  sentimentalism, 
which  led  to  a  less  partisan  and  more  rational  appreciation 
of  one  another  by  members  of  the  different  schools. 

Whether  this  opened  the  way  to  it  or  not,  the  Conven- 


THE  MEMORIAL  MOVEMENT.  483 

tion  which  witnessed  the  deposition  of  Bishop  Ives  saw  the 
beeinnine  of  a  movement  more  significant  than  any  which 
had  occurred  in  the  church's  history.  It  was  the  presen- 
tation of  the  Memorial  suggested  and  composed  by  Dr. 
Muhlenberg,  and  indissolubly  identified  with  his  name, 
which  looked  to  bringing  the  communion  out  of  the  attitude 
of  a  denomination  into  the  position  of  a  church.  Whatever 
claims  had  been  made  for  it,  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  had  hitherto  been  ordered  very  largely  in  the  spirit 
of  a  sect,  or  a  particular  household,  adapted  to  a  part  only 
of  the  community,  and  hemmed  in  with  regulations  as 
to  worship  and  action  which  could  commend  it  to  only  a 
chosen  few.  Those  within,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been 
clamorous  for  party  predominance  rather  than  for  mutual 
recognition  of  one  another's  rights.  The  impression  without 
had  been  largely  ineffective  on  the  masses  of  the  popula- 
tion. It  had  made  no  adequate  attempt  to  be  the  church 
of  the  people ;  and  the  Memorial  contended  that  it  could 
not,  until  its  attitude  was  altered  by  enlarging  the  scope 
of  a  bishop's  action,  and  by  making  the  arrangements  of 
its  own  household  more  flexible. 

Before  entering  more  fully  into  the  details  or  the  history 
of  the  Memorial  Movement,  it  is  well,  for  the  understand- 
ing of  both,  to  glance  at  the  person  and  character  of  its 
proposer.  William  Augustus  Muhlenberg  was  a  rare  man 
for  any  time.  The  elements  of  genius  were  abundant  in 
him,  and  they  were  all  suffused  with  the  genius  of  common 
sense.  Opposing  qualities  met  in  him,  not  in  contention, 
but  in  mutual  helpfulness ;  for  a  heavenly  vision  beckoned 
all  his  powers,  and  he  was  not  disobedient  to  it.  His  child- 
like simplicity  intensified  the  manliness  of  his  understand- 
ing, while  his  sanctity  of  character  made  itself  apparent  in 
the  brilliant  flashes  of  his  wit  as  well  as  in  his  alms-deeds 
and  prayers.     Like  Bunyan's  Pilgrim  when  past  the  De- 


484  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

lectable  Mountains,  he  "  seemed  to  be  in  heaven  before  he 
got  at  it,"  and  he  walked  through  the  slums  of  New  York 
as  along  the  streets  of  the  Celestial  City.  But  it  was  a 
walk  of  practical  usefulness.      He  had 

A  heart  at  leisure  from  itself, 
To  soothe  and  sympathize. 

Songs  of  faith  and  love  issued  from  his  lips,  while  his  hands 
were  busy  ministering  to  the  wants  of  sinful  and  suffering 
men.  He  was  both  a  poet  and  a  schoolmaster,  and  was 
eminent  as  both.  He  was  intensely  churchly  and  broadly 
liberal.  He  called  himself  an  Evangelical  Catholic,  not  in 
the  party  sense  of  either  term,  but  as  expressive  of  the 
union  of  the  subjective  and  objective  elements  of  thje  church 
which  formed  his  ideal.  His  catholicity  embraced  Protes- 
tantism, in  admiration  and  appreciation  of  which  he  was  very 
strong ;  and  his  evangelical  faith  found  its  expression  in  an 
esthetic  ritual  of  a  glowing,  though  not  conventional,  type. 
There  was  no  department  of  church  life  "  which  he  did  not 
touch,  and,  touching,  did  not  adorn."  He  first  started  and 
made  successful,  with  the  success  which  has  been  the  fruit- 
ful germ  of  all  its  rich  aftergrowth,  the  church  school.  At 
Flushing  and  College  Point,  on  Long  Island,  for  eighteen 
years  he  educated,  in  an  atmosphere  charged  with  religious 
and  churchly  enthusiasm,  a  band  of  young  men,  who  never 
ceased  to  thrill  with  the  magnetism  of  his  character,  or  to 
diffuse  his  spirit,  even  when  not  sharing  his  opinions. 
After  his  college  life  ended  he  started  and  made  powerful 
the  first  free  church  of  any  prominence  or  influence  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  by  founding  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Communion ;  in  which  church  he  not  only  made  the 
sittings  free,  but  introduced  those  elements  of  worship 
and  work  which  succeeded  in  making  it  the  home  of  all 
manner  of  devout  and  active  souls.     The  daily  prayer,  the 


WILLIAM  AUGUSTUS  MUHLENBERG.  485 

weekly  communion,  the  divided  services,  the  weekly  offer- 
tory, the  choir  of  men  and  boys,  the  festival  commemora- 
tion, the  Easter  flowers,  features  of  worship  now  general, 
were  introduced  by  him  for  the  first  time  in  America,  and 
all  for  the  practical  edification  of  the  people,  as  well  as  for 
extending  the  influence  of  the  church  and  amplifying  the 
sphere  of  her  possibilities.  The  practical  side  of  church 
life,  as  well  as  the  liturgical,  found  its  ample  development  in 
him.  His  was  the  earliest  sisterhood,  at  first  informal,  after- 
ward organized.  His  practice  first  started  the  Fresh  Air 
movement  for  the  city's  poor.  His  were  the  first  Christmas 
trees  for  the  Sunday-school.  His  Church  Infirmary  sug- 
gested and  started  his  own  movement  for  the  founding 
of  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  the  first  church  hospital  of  any 
Christian  communion  in  the  land. 

All  these  things  had  taken  shape  before  the  Memorial 
Movement  began,  and  that  movement  was  meant  to  make 
possible  and  widespread  in  the  general  church  what  he  had 
in  a  limited  degree  accomplished  in  his  own  parish.  He 
loved  the  church  in  such  measure  that  he  would  free  it 
from  restrictions  which  he  saw  hindered  its  expansion. 
He  believed  in  it  so  intensely  that  he  was  sure  of  its  com- 
petency to  become  the  church  of  the  nation,  if  only  it  would 
consent  to  develop  its  latent  resources.  As  Hobart  had 
reproduced  Seabury  in  larger  type  and  ampler  spirit,  so 
Muhlenberg  stood  related  to  Bishop  White.  He  shared 
the  large  wisdom  and  broad  spirit  which  had  framed  a 
church  for  a  nation,  but  with  the  intuition  of  a  seer  he  de- 
tected latent  energies  in  it  which  might  make  it  the  nation's 
church.  All  the  ardor  of  his  genius  was  awakened  to  make 
real  the  vision  which  haunted  him.  He  was  an  idealist  of 
consummate  practical  force  ;  and  he  was  bent  on  transform- 
ing what  was  practically  a  liturgical  denomination  into  what 
should  be  really  a  catholic  church  ;  a  church  not  only  in  its 


486  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xvi. 

claim,  but  in  its  accomplishment ;  a  church  which  should 
be  a  center  of  unity  to  at  least  Protestant  Christendom, 
and  adapted  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  in  the 
manifold  working  of  its  activities  and  the  multiform  adapta- 
bility of  its  worship.  He  was  utterly  weary  of  the  conten- 
tion of  parties  who  would  not  understand  one  another,  and 
was  alive  to  the  importance  of  combining  their  energies  in 
the  practical  work  of  making  the  nation  Christian  and  the 
church  supreme  in  it,  comprehensive  of  all  types  of  good- 
ness, aggressive  against  all  forms  of  evil. 

In  the  Memorial^  there  were  associated  with  Dr.  Muhlen- 
berg men  of  mark ;  but  he  was  the  informing  spirit.  It 
was  addressed  "  To  the  Bishops  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  Council  Assembled,"  but  it  persisted  in  regard- 
ing them  as  "  a  College  of  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Bishops," 
having  a  wide  relation  to  the  church  of  God  as  such,  as 
well  as  to  a  fragmentary  part  of  it.  It  did  not  so  much  ask 
for  specific  measures  as  suggest  action  according  to  certain 
indicated  principles.  Its  chief  inquiry  was  "  whether  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  with  only  her  present  canoni- 
cal means  and  appliances,  her  fixed  and  invariable  modes 
of  public  worship,  and  her  traditional  customs  and  usages, 
is  competent  to  the  work  of  preaching  and  dispensing  the 
gospel  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  so  adequate 
to  do  the  work  of*  the  Lord  in  this  land  and  in  this  age." 
The  statement  of  its  conviction  was  "  that  our  church,  con- 
fined to  the  exercise  of  her  present  system,  is  not  sufficient 
to  the  great  purposes  above  mentioned ;  that  a  wider  door 
must  be  opened  for  admission  to  the  gospel  ministry  ...  of 
men  who  could  not  bring  themselves  to  conform  in  all  par- 
ticulars to  our  prescriptions  and  customs,  yet  sound  in  the 
faith."  Its  suggestion  was  that  "  an  important  step  would 
thus  be  taken  toward  efTecting  church  unity  in  the  Protest- 

1  See  Appendix  D. 


SCOPE    OF   THE  MEMORIAL.  487 

ant  Christendom  of  our  land."  Its  declaration  of  ultimate 
design  was  "  to  submit  the  practicability,  under  your 
auspices,  of  some  ecclesiastical  system  broader  and  more 
comprehensive  than  that  which  you  now  administer,  sur- 
rounding and  including  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
as  it  now  is,  leaving  that  church  untouched,  identical  with 
that  church  in  all  its  great  principles,  yet  providing  for 
as  much  freedom  in  opinion,  discipline,  and  worship  as  is 
compatible  with  the  essential  faith  and  order  of  the  gospel. 
To  define  and  act  upon  that  system,  it  is  beheved, 
must  sooner  or  later  be  the  work  of  an  American  catholic 
episcopate." 

This  Memorial  was  signed,  together  with  Dr.  Muhlen- 
berg, by  such  men  as  Edwin  Harwood,  Alexander  H. 
Vinton,  M.  A.  De  Wolfe  Howe,  and  others,  as  also,  with 
reservations,  by  A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  John  Henry  Hobart, 
and  Francis  Vinton.  Its  scope  was,  briefly,  to  preserve 
intact  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  for  those  who 
valued  its  special  features  of  worship  and  discipline,  but 
also  to  extend  its  jurisdiction  over  those  who  did  not;  in 
fine,  to  embrace  in  its  system  those  who  need  not  submit 
to  its  denominational  peculiarities.  Its  aim  was  to  make 
the  church  something  more  than  a  liturgical  section  of 
Christendom,  and  to  show  the  catholicity  of  its  constitution 
by  the  catholicity  of  its  administration,  not  elevating  things 
desirable  to  some  into  things  necessary  for  all,  but  adapting 
the  apostolic  faith  and  order  to  the  varying  wants  of  com- 
munities and  men. 

This  Memorial  made  a  profound  impression.  The  con- 
sideration of  it  was  referred  to  a  committee,  by  a  vote  of 
twenty  to  four,  with  instructions  to  report  to  the  next 
General  Convention.  Bishop  Otey  was  the  chairman,  and 
Bishops  G.  W.  Doane,  Alonzo  Potter,  George  Burgess,  and 
John  Williams  were  the  members  of  it,  a  committee  so 


488  PJ^OTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chai-.  xvi, 

weighty  as  to  show  the  importance  attached  to  the  subject. 
The  church,  though  startled  into  interest,  was  not  ready  for 
the  scheme,  which,  nevertheless,  proposed  to  satisfy  the 
expressed  aims  of  both  parties :  of  the  Evangelicals,  in  the 
wider  spread  of  the  gospel  and  the  more  flexible  use  of  the 
liturgy  ;  of  the  High-churchmen,  by  extending  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  episcopate  and  constituting  it  the  center  of  unity. 
Most  of  those  who  reported  upon  it  at  the  next  General 
Convention  failed  to  grasp  the  fullness  of  its  conception,  or 
were  distrustful  of  it. 

A  preliminary  report  was  offered  at  the  beginning  of  the 
session  in  1856,  in  expectation  of  some  action  at  the  outset 
of  the  discussion.  It  did  not  go  to  the  heart  of  the  subject, 
but  indicated  certain  concessions  or  directions  in  the  use  of 
the  liturgy,  in  the  separation  of  services,  and  other  surface 
matters,  and  recommended  that  a  commission  of  five  bish- 
ops be  appointed  at  each  General  Convention  to  sit  as  a 
commission  on  church  unity.  The  long  report  introduced 
at  the  end  of  the  Convention  did  little  more.  The  church 
had  not  risen  to  the  height  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg's  concep- 
tion. It  could  not  safely  legislate  on  what  it  did  not 
fully  comprehend.  The  settlement  of  the  questions  sug- 
gested was  largely  left  for  future  consideration.  In  many 
respects,  however,  the  Memorial  won  success  in  the  midst 
of  defeat.  It  occasioned  the  most  widespread  discussion. 
The  attention  of  the  younger  clergy  was  attracted  to  a 
new  phase  of  churchmanship  divergent  from  the  old  party 
lines ;  and  thoughtful  minds  among  them  were  awakened 
to  a  nobler  idea  of  the  church's  mission.  It  is  interesting  to 
recall  what  Dr.  Muhlenberg  himself  wrote  to  Bishop  Otey 
in  the  pamphlet,  "  What  do  the  Memorialists  Want?  "  con- 
cerning flexibility  in  the  use  of  the  Prayer-book  in  regular 
congregations,  and  to  find  the  desired  requirements  every 
one  granted  in  the    revised  Prayer-book   of   1892.      The 


BISHOP  ALONZO  POTTER.  489 

Memorial  was  the  seed  of  the  revision  movement,  as  it  also 
was  of  the  celebrated  Declaration  concerning  Unity,  pro- 
mulgated at  the  Convention  of  1886,  and  by  the  Lambeth 
Conference  of  1888. 

But  there  was  one  who  at  the  time  of  the  Memorial 
comprehended  its  meaning  and  saw  its  worth.  It  was 
that  statesmanlike  bishop,  Alonzo  Potter,  of  Pennsylvania, 
who  became  the  champion  of  the  principles  which  under- 
lay the  whole  movement.  In  his  efforts  to  emancipate  the 
liturgy  from  the  slavish  yoke  of  the  letter,  to  remove 
the  bars  to  the  progress  of  the  apostolic  ministry,  to  bring 
out  the  undeveloped  powers  of  the  church  and  utilize  its 
every  instrument  to  reach  and  elevate  all  conditions  of  men 
and  departments  of  life,  he  showed  himself  a  master  builder 
on  the  foundations  which  Dr.  Muhlenberg  had  laid  bare. 

He  had  been  chosen  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  in  1845,  ^t 
a  time  when  the  Episcopal  Church  was  divided  by  a  wide 
and  deep  cleavage  into  two  great  parties,  each  of  which 
regarded  the  other  with  distrust,  if  not  aversion.  One  of 
these  accounted  itself  as  having  all  the  piety,  and  the  other 
all  the  loyalty  and  good  manners,  in  the  church.  Each  of 
them  contemplated  the  growth  of  the  other  as  an  event  to 
be  deprecated  and  discouraged.  At  such  a  juncture  Bishop 
Potter  came  to  Pennsylvania  as  the  choice  of  a  majority, 
but  not  a  large  majority,  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  and  in 
the  expectation  that  he  would  be  a  tolerant  bishop.  Men 
soon  found  that  he  was  something  else,  and  more.  He 
was  sometimes  called  the  "  schoolmaster  bishop,"  and  his 
training  was  occasionally  thought  to  smack  of  the  class- 
room and  the  college  from  which  he  had  come.  But  as  a 
matter  of  fact  Union  College  had  been  the  best  training  for 
the  task  to  which  he  was  called.  He  was  neither  unctuous 
nor  "  sacerdotal "  in  his  manners,  but  he  was  intelligently 
sympathetic. 


490  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.      [Chap.  xvi. 

He  had,  indeed,  been  a  parish  minister  as  rector  of 
St.  Paul's  Church,  Boston,  in  his  earlier  years ;  but  he  had 
fortunately  outgrown  that  parochial  conception  of  episco- 
pal administration  which  bishops  too  often  take  into  their 
higher  office.  From  the  outset  he  showed  himself  not 
merely  a  tolerant  but  a  comprehensive  bishop,  who  recog- 
nized explicitly  that  the  various  schools  of  thought  in  the 
church  have  each  their  rightful  place  as  representing  one 
or  another  aspect  of  the  many-sided  truth  of  which  it  is  the 
guardian  and  keeper,  and  as  set  to  preserve  it  from  being 
obscured  or  lost  sight  of.  In  this  spirit  he  welcomed  men 
of  every  variety  of  opinion  and  usage  to  his  diocese,  and 
carefully  avoided  a  policy  too  common  in  the  episcopate, 
which  seeks  to  fill  a  diocese  with  clergy  who  are  more  or 
less  pale  imitations  of  its  ordinary.  In  this  way  he  secured 
a  wholesome  and  hospitable  atmosphere  for  the  best  in- 
telligence and  the  best  endeavors  which  the  diocese  could 
command,  and  made  it  a  home  to  which  men  of  every  shade 
of  opinion  eagerly  turned  from  other  and  less  generous 
associations. 

His  administration  thus  illustrated  more  conspicuously 
than  the  history  of  the  Episcopal  Church  had  yet  seen  a 
truly  catholic  episcopate.  And  something  more.  From 
the  outset  Bishop  Potter  recognized  that,  to  those  without, 
the  church  must  first  commend  herself  by  her  spirit  rather 
than  by  the  self-asserting  obtrusion  of  her  institutional 
characteristics.  He  was  by  temperament  and  embodiment 
a  statesman,  and  would  have  been  anywhere  a  leader  of 
men.  He  did  not  cease  to  be  so  when  he  became  a  bishop. 
Without  forgetting  in  any  smallest  degree  the  obligations 
of  his  office  and  work  or  the  proprieties  which  hedged  it 
about,  he  soon  made  it  apparent  that  he  was  a  citizen  as 
well  as  a  bishop,  and  that,  in  the  spirit  of  Terence,  nothing 
that  concerned  the  well-being  of  humanity  could  be  in- 


FATE    OF   THE   MEMORIAL. 


491 


different  to  him.  The  urgent  social  questions  of  his  genera- 
tion found  in  him  a  wise  and  thoughtful  student ;  and  every 
serious  endeavor  for  their  solution,  a  friend  and  pioneer. 

In  this  way  before  long  he  became  a  recognized  force 
and  leader  in  the  whole  community,  and  illustrated  in  his 
episcopate  the  highest  order  of  ecclesiastical  statesmanship. 
He  never  intrigued  for  ecclesiastical  advantage,  or  clamored 
for  official  recognition  ;  but  the  church  won  friends  every- 
where, and  his  office  evoked  a  confidence  wholly  unprec- 
edented, because  he  interpreted  both  in  a  way  so  large 
and  noble  to  the  best  intelligence  of  his  generation.  When 
his  work  in  Pennsylvania  was  ended,  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  that  great  commonwealth,  and  the  office  of  a  bishop,  had 
come  to  be,  in  the  minds  of  its  citizens,  something  other 
and  more  than  they  had  ever  before  conceived  them. 

Through  the  Memorial,  whose  chronicles  and  papers 
Bishop  Potter  gathered  and  preserved  for  future  guidance 
and  inspiration,  the  church  had  received  a  summons  to  a 
united  and  positive  advance,  which  should  bring  its  action 
into  accord  with  its  principles,  and  fill  it  with  one  spirit 
amid  all  its  diversities  of  operation.  It  was  too  great  an  idea 
to  gain  instant  acceptance,  or  to  act  other  than  as  a  leaven 
to  raise  the  lump  to  the  height  of  its  conception.  To 
"  give  over  the  attempt  to  cast  all  men's  minds  into,  one 
mold"  ;  to  "cherish  among  her  own  members  mutual  toler- 
ance of  opinion  in  doctrine  and  taste  in  worship  "  ;  in  fine, 
to  be  truly  catholic,  as  well  as  claim  to  be  catholic — all  this 
the  author  of  the  Memorial  did  not  cease  to  urge.  But  it 
required  the  tumult  of  the  ritualistic  rising  and  controversy, 
and  the  secession. of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  communion, 
before  the  church,  through  sad  experience,  learned  more 
adequately  to  comprehend  the  spirit  which  might  have 
prevented  both.  Nevertheless  it  went  on  its  way,  quick- 
ened by  an  impulse  which  it  could  not  fully  embody. 


492  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

From  this  time  on  to  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War, 
which  during  its  continuance  parted  it  into  two  separate 
famiHes,  the  church's  energy  and  progress  were  not  in- 
considerable. The  influential  and  distracted  diocese  of 
New  York  became  placated  and  prosperous  under  the 
conciliatory  policy  of  its  provisional  bishops.  The  short 
episcopate  of  the  courtly  and  thoroughly  Christian,  Wain- 
wright,  too  soon  accomplished,  struck  the  key-note  which 
his  successor,  Bishop  Horatio  Potter,  was  apt  and  keen  to 
prolong  and  develop.  The  convictions  and  sympathies  of 
the  latter  were  not  concealed,  but  they  were  not  permitted 
to  meddle  with  the  rights  of  others.  His  conservative  nature 
held  him  aloof  from  active  propagandism  ;  and,  while  diligent 
and  faithful  in  a  sphere  of  peculiar  difficulty,  he  showed  a 
masterly  inactivity  in  regard  to  the  causes  of  ecclesiastical 
agitation,  which  resulted  in  the  subsidence  of  angry  and 
heated  feeling.  His  was  the  Fabian  policy,  which  in  its 
wisdom  saved  the  strongest  and  most  influential  diocese  of 
the  country  from  the  disintegration  of  factious  warfare. 
Calmness  succeeded  strife,  and  then  came  prosperity  and 
peace. 

At  the  South  the  noble  Bishop  Elliott,  of  Georgia,  was 
the  ruling  and  guiding  spirit  of  this  time,  and  was  more 
and  more  prized  and  deferred  to  as  age  and  experience 
developed  the  marvelous  power  which  in  two  years  after 
his  consecration  had  doubled  the  number  of  parishes  and 
communicants  within  his  jurisdiction.  He  was  a  man 
equally  admired  and  beloved.  His  eloquence  and  the 
fervor  of  his  evangelical  convictions  made  him  a  potent 
factor  in  the  religious  life  of  the  whole  community,  as  well 
as  of  his  own  church.  One  not  of  his  communion  was  the 
chief  benefactor  of  the  church  school  which  he  early  started. 
He  was  causing  the  church  to  be  felt  all  through  the 
Southern  States. 


KEMPER  AND  BRECK.  493 

Bishop  George  Burgess,  of  Maine,  was  making  the  im- 
pression of  his  scholarly  mind  and  earnest  soul  visible 
through  all  New  England,  of  which  at  this  time  he  was  the 
most  able  and  eminent  representative.  California  and  Ore- 
gon had  received  their  bishops,  and  no  more  glances  were 
thrown  toward  the  Greek  Church  across  the  Pacific,  which  in 
the  very  beginning,  when  California  seemed  nearer  to  Russia 
than  to  the  Eastern  United  States,  had  been  contemplated 
as  a  source  of  orders  for  the  churchmen  gathered  there. 
The  church  hfe,  which  had  been  cherished  by  the  Rev. 
Flavel  S.  Mines  during  the  years  before  Bishop  Kip  came, 
was  now  becoming  regularly  organized.  At  the  North- 
west, lying  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  the  apostolic, 
Kemper,  after  founding  and  fostering  the  church  in  Mis- 
souri, Indiana,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota,  through  incredibel 
hardships  and  by  a  devotion  as  heroic  as  had  marked  any 
age  of  the  church,  accepted  the  bishopric  of  Wisconsin  in 
1859,  taking  the  title  of  missionary  bishop  in  that  wilder- 
ness jurisdiction,  but  not  changing  his  work.  The  associate 
mission  at  Nashotah,  where  he  resided,  had  become  an  im- 
portant center  of  education,  both  secular  and  theological, 
for  the  region  ;  and  James  Lloyd  Breck,  who  had  assisted  at 
its  foundation  in  1841,  in  1857  founded  the  educational  in- 
stitutions of  Faribault,  Minn.,  which  Bishop  Whipple,  since 
1859,  has  so  wonderfully  developed.  The  work  of  Breck 
deserves  larger  recognition  than  it  is  possible  to  give  it 
here.  It  was  a  marvelous  instance  of  religious  devotion  in 
adhesion  to  the  strictest  ecclesiastical  principles,  and  com- 
bined with  a  pioneer  instinct  which  made  him  restless  at 
the  approach  of  the  civilization  for  whose  advantage  his 
numerous  schools  were  established  and  his  many  churches 
formed.  He  founded  them  so  securely  that  when  left  to 
the  care  of  others  they  survived  and  grew,  while  he  pressed 
on  to  new  efforts  for  Indians  yet  more  remote  and  for  set- 


494  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

tiers  yet  more  recent  in  the  regions  beyond.  He  appro- 
priately found  his  last  work  in  establishing  a  school  a't 
Benicia,  in  California,  only  stayed,  it  would  seem,  by  the 
Pacific  Ocean  from  regions  more  distant  still.  Had  Sitka 
been  ours  then,  it  would  have  beckoned  him  irresistibly. 
This  spirit  of  restlessness  was  the  spirit,  not  of  an  adven- 
turer, but  of  a  founder ;  and  the  fruit  of  his  labors  is  the 
permanent  possession  of  the  church  in  those  far-off  regions 
into  which  he  opened  the  way  for  her. 

The  result  of  all  these  labors,  North,  South,  East,  and 
West,  was  soon  to  suffer  shock  by  the  disruption  of  the 
Civil  War.  The  Episcopal  Church  as  an  organization  had, 
from  the  beginning,  determined  to  keep  aloof  from  party 
politics,  and,  more  fully  than  other  ecclesiastical  bodies, 
had  done  so.  Her  membership  was  very  varied  among  the 
influential  classes  of  society.  Many  of  the  distinguished 
statesmen  of  all  parties  were  of  her  communion.  They 
acted  in  their  several  political  spheres  as  citizens  and  as 
churchmen,  neither  gave  nor  withheld  their  countenance 
in  political  action. 

The  triennial  meetings  of  the  General  Convention  had 
made  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  North  and  the  South 
familiar  and  friendly  with  one  another.  The  sectional  in- 
stitution of  slavery,  which  occasioned  the  secession  move- 
ment, had  not  been  made  a  subject  of  general  ecclesiastical 
legislation.  It  was  left  to  the  regulation  of  the  dioceses  in 
which  it  existed.  The  North  had  had  its  strong  antislavery 
advocates  in  the  Danas  of  Boston,  the  Jays  of  New  York, 
and  the  Binneys  of  Philadelphia,  as  the  South  had  had  as 
defenders  of  the  institution  its  most  distinguished  states- 
men— in  fact,  almost  its  entire  white  population.  Bishop 
Meade  disliked  slavery,  but  defended  its  lawfulness.  Others 
held  to  it  as  an  institution  sanctioned  by  the  Bible,  and  es- 
sential for  the  best  interests  of  the  negro ;  and  the  Epis- 


SEPARATION  BY  THE    WAR.  495 

copal  Church  had  cared  for  the  slave.  In  South  CaroHna 
there  were  a  hundred  and  fifty  congregations  of  negroes 
for  a  hundred  of  whites ;  and  the  devotion  of  masters  and 
mistresses  to  their  servants'  rehgious  welfare  was  in  many 
cases  of  the  most  patriarchal  and  self-sacrificing  character. 

The  Bishop  of  Virginia  preached  a  Convention  sermon 
on  the  duty  owed  by  the  whites  to  the  negroes ;  Bishop 
Polk,  a  large  slave-holder,  cared  diligently  for  his  servants  ; 
and  there  were  thousands  of  communicants  among  the 
colored  people.  The  whole  attitude  of  the  negroes  toward 
the  white  population  during  the  war,  while  a  conspicuous 
tribute  to  the  noble  and  winning  traits  of  their  race, 
showed  unmistakably  that  their  masters  had  largely  won 
their  love,  as  well  as  awed  them  by  authority.  The  con- 
viction of  Northern  churchmen  as  to  the  evils  of  the  in- 
stitution, and  their  religious  and  political  aversion  to  it, 
had  not  blinded  them  to  those  practical  ameliorations  of 
the  system  with  which  their  ecclesiastical  intercourse  with 
Southerners  had  made  them  familiar. 

Bishop  Mcllvaine,  of  Ohio,  the  most  conspicuous  of  the 
Northern  bishops  in  the  cause  of  the  Union,  was  in  closest 
bonds  of  religious  and  ecclesiastical  sympathy  with  that 
most  ardent  secessionist.  Bishop  Polk,  of  Louisiana,  who 
had  been  converted  under  his  ministry  while  a  cadet  at 
West  Point.  They  prayed  for  each  other  by  name  every 
Sunday  morning.  There  was  no  religious  household  in 
the  land  into  which  the  coming  of  the  Civil  War  intro- 
duced more  personal  distress  than  that  of  the  Episcopal 
Church. 

At  first  some  of  the  Southern  bishops  deprecated  seces- 
sion, notably  Meade  of  Virginia  and  Otey  of  Tennessee ; 
but  when  their  States  seceded  they  joined  heart  and  soul 
with  Elliott  of  Georgia  and  Davis  of  South  Carolina,  who 
had  ardently  fanned  it  from  the  first ;  and  it  was  the  aged 


496  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

Meade  who  cautiously  counseled  the  more  youthful  Polk 
to  enter  the  army,  and  use  the  military  education  he  had 
received  at  West  Point  for  the  advantage  of  the  en- 
dangered Confederacy.  It  was  a  unique  position  for  a 
Protestant  bishop;  but  it  was  reluctantly  undertaken  from 
the  sternest  sense  of  duty,  and  discharged  in  the  spirit 
of  a  Christian  warrior.  On  the  other  hand.  Bishop  Whit- 
tingham,  of  Maryland,  not  a  Southerner  by  birth,  stood 
stanchly  for  the  Union,  with  an  unswerving  intrepidity, 
amid  dissevered  friendships  and  in  a  divided  diocese.  But 
we  anticipate  the  church's  action. 

In  compliance  with  a  call  issued  before  the  States  of 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas  had 
seceded,  the  Bishops  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Mis- 
sissippi, Florida,  and  Texas,  together  with  clerical  and  lay 
delegates,  met  in  Convention  in  Montgomery,  Ala.,  July  3, 
1 86 1.  It  was  unanimously  resolved  that  the  secession 
of  the  Southern  States  from  the  United  States,  and  the 
formation  of  the  government  of  the  Confederate  States, 
rendered  necessary  an  independent  organization  of  the 
dioceses  within  the  seceded  States.  A  draft  of  a  constitu- 
tion and  canons  was  prepared,  and  the  Convention  ad- 
journed, after  sitting  three  days,  to  meet  in  October.  At 
the  October  session,  held  at  Columbia,  S.  C,  ten  bishops 
were  present,  and  Bishop  Meade  was  made  chairman. 
Clerical  deputies  from  nine  States  and  lay  deputies  from 
seven  were  also  in  attendance.  The  constitution  reported 
by  the  committee  to  whom  its  preparation  had  been  in- 
trusted at  Montgomery  was  adopted,  and  its  submission  to 
the  several  dioceses  authorized.  When  seven  should  ratify 
it,  the  union  of  the  church  was  to  be  declared  complete. 
The  canons  of  the  church  in  the  United  Stages  were 
provisionally  accepted,  and  the  name  "  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church  in  the  Confederate  States  "  adopted  by  a  large 


CHURCH  IN   THE   CONFEDERACY.  '497 

majority,  in  opposition  to  a  proposal  to  eliminate  "  Protest- 
ant "  from  the  title,  or  to  substitute  the  name  "  Reformed 
Catholic. ' '  The  diocese  of  Alabama  was  empowered  to  pro- 
ceed, under  existing  regulations,  to  elect  a  bishop.  After 
the  adjournment  of  the  Convention  Dr.  R.  H.  Wilmer  was 
elected  Bishop  of  Alabama,  and  was  consecrated  by  Bishop 
Meade  in  Richmond,  Va.,  March  6,  1862.  By  this  act  more 
strongly  than  by  any  resolution  the  church  proclaimed 
itself  an  independent  ecclesiastical  body.  Yet  the  whole 
attitude  of  the  body,  while  maintaining  with  unmistakable 
emphasis  its  political  or  national  independence,  was  one  of 
thorough  accord  with  the  old  church  in  all  other  respects. 
The  resolutions,  the  reports,  the  pastoral  letters  issued  from 
time  to  time,  breathed  a  spirit  of  friendly  intercommunion 
in  all  ecclesiastical  and  doctrinal  affairs.  In  the  ordering 
of  divine  Providence  the  separate  existence  of  the  church 
in  the  Confederate  States  was  of  so  brief  a  continuance  that 
there  is  no  need  to  further  trace  its  history.^  Its  action 
was  such  as  to  leave  no  invincible  obstacle  to  a  complete  re- 
union when  once  the  political  situation  was  changed.  Its 
one  bishop  who  had  entered  the  Southern  army  had  fallen, 
and  all  men  honored  his  motive  and  his  spirit,  while  they 
deplored  his  action  and  his  fate.  Arkansas,  which  had 
become  a  diocese,  of  necessity  lapsed  into  its  previous 
condition  as  a  missionary  jurisdiction,  and  its  bishop  was 
continued  in  the  position  to  which  he  had  been  appointed 
before  the  war.  The  consecration  of  the  Bishop  of  Ala- 
bama was  confirmed  and  ratified  on  his  making  the  usual 
"  promise  of  conformity  comprised  in  the  Office  for  the 
Consecration  of  Bishops." 

The  attitude  of  the  church  at  the  North  was  identical 

1  For  a  complete  account  see  Perry's  "  History  of  the  American  Episcopal 
Church,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  560-592,  being  a  monograph  by  Rev.  John  Fulton,  D.D., 
entitled  "  The  Church  in  the  Confederate  States."  It  is  ample,  thorough,  and 
impartial. 


498  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

with  that  of  the  national  government.  It  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge that  the  church  was  broken  up,  just  as  the 
country  refused  to  acknowledge  that  it  was  rent  asunder. 
There  was  rupture,  but  not  permanent  disruption.  At  the 
General  Convention  held  in  New  York  in  1862,  though  but 
twenty-four  bishops  were  present  and  only  twenty-two 
dioceses  were  represented,  the  roll-call  included  each  day 
the  names  of  the  Southern  dioceses.  They  were  absent, 
but  absent  members.  It  was  a  time  of  great  uncertainty 
as  to  the  result  of  hostilities.  The  weight  and  meaning  of 
the  war  were  then  just  beginning"  to  be  fully  understood, 
and  the  question  came  whether  the  indorsement  of  the 
government  in  its  supreme  struggle  for  life  and  being  was 
to  be  regarded  as  ordinary  politics,  and  as  such,  according 
to  precedent,  eschewed  ;  or  whether  it  was  to  be  considered 
as  a  sacred  national  duty,  binding  on  church  and  state  alike, 
irrespective  of  and  superior  to  all  party  obligation.  There 
were  those  who  urged  that  any  action  or  expression  of 
opinion  recognizing  the  state  of  civil  war  and  pledging 
fealty  to  the  government  was  a  political  procedure  deroga- 
tory to  the  church  of  Christ,  whose  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world.  It  was  to  be  remanded  to  the  same  department  as 
tariffs  and  taxes,  and  was  not  to  be  regarded  as  of  religious 
obligation.  But  the  vast  body  of  bishops,  clergy,  and  laity 
maintained  that  a  church  which  recognized  the  President 
in  its  prayers,  and  besought  deliverance  from  sedition, 
privy  conspiracy,  and  rebellion  in  its  Litany,  which  incul- 
cated obedience  to  the  higher  powers  of  government  as  a 
duty  to  God  in  its  Articles,  and  prayed  constantly  for  unity, 
peace,  and  concord  for  all  nations,  was  bound,  when  the 
national  existence  was  in  peril  from  what  cause  soever,  to 
contribute  to  the  national  safety  by  the  expression  of  its  un- 
swerving loyalty,  and  to  sanction  the  righteousness  of  the 
national  struggle  by  its  unmistakable  indorsement.     It  pro- 


LOYAL   ATTLTUDE    OF   THE    CHURCH.  499 

ceeded  to  do  so  in  the  face  of  a  limited  but  vigorous  protest.  ' 
The  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Delegates  passed  the  reso- 
lutions of  the  committee  of  nine,  of  which  the  third  is 
expressive  of  their  purport,  and  which  ran  as  follows: 
''Resolved,  That  while  as  individuals  and  as  citizens  we  ac- 
knowledge our  whole  duty  in  sustaining  and  defending  our 
country  in  the  great  struggle  in  which  it  is  engaged,  we  are 
only  at  liberty,  as  deputies  to  this  council  of  a  church  which 
hath  ever  renounced  all  political  association  and  action,  to 
pledge  to  the  national  government — as  we  do  now — the 
earnest  and  devout  prayers  of  us  all  that  its  efforts  may 
be  so  guided  by  wisdom  and  replenished  with  strength 
that  they  may  be  crowned  with  speedy  and  complete 
success,  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  restoration  of  our 
beloved  Union." 

A  solemn  service  was  held  by  the  Convention  in  Trinity 
Church,  whose  rector  ^  was  the  son  of  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished Union  generals ;  being  "  a  service  of  fasting, 
humihation,  and  prayer,"  in  view  "  of  the  present  afflicted 
condition  of  the  country  "  ;  and  the  offertory  at  the  service 
was  in  behalf  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  By  word  and 
deed  the  church  thus  stood  boldly  and  unfalteringly  by  the 
nation,  as  thoroughly  identified  with  its  cause  as  the  church 
in  the  Confederate  States  was  identified  with  the  newly 
projected  government  at  the  South.     This  attitude  was 

1  The  Rev.  Morgan  Dix,  D.D.,  the  rector  for  more  than  thn-ty-five  years 
of  Trinity  Church,  New  York  City,  is  distinguished  in  the  literary  as  well  as 
the  theological  world  as  the  author  of  "  The  Life  of  General  Dix,"  his  father, 
and  also  of  sermons  and  lectures  on  many  topics  of  ecclesiastical  interest. 
Besides  recognition  of  his  efficient  management  of  the  vast  concerns  of  his 
great  parish,  he  is  entitled  to  the  gratitude  and  admiration  of  the  whole 
church  for  the  dignity,  impartiality,  and  intelligence  with  \\hich  he  has  pre- 
sided during  four  sessions  of  the  General  Convention  over  the  proceedings 
of  the  House  of  Deputies.  The  justness  of  his  rulings,  combined  with  the 
courtesy  of  his  manners,  has  guided  the  legislature  of  the  church  safely 
through  many  perils,  and  has  largely  contributed  to  the  confidence  and  satis- 
faction with  which  its  action  has  been  received. 


50O  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvi. 

maintained  in  the  pastoral  letter  of  the  House  of  Bishops, 
delivered,  under  circumstances  of  unusual  solemnity,  at 
the  final  morning  service,  which  included,  contrary  to  pre- 
vious custom,  the  administration  of  the  holy  communion. 
This  pastoral  letter  made  the  more  marked  impression  be- 
cause it  had  been  the  subject  of  controversy.  By  reason 
of  the  illness  of  Bishop  Brownell,  Bishop  Hopkins,  of  Ver- 
mont, the  next  in  succession,  took  his  place  as  presiding 
bishop  of  the  Convention,  and  he  had  prepared  a  draft  of 
a  pastoral  letter  excluding  all  reference  to  the  national  crisis 
as  irrelevant  and  opposed  to  proper  ecclesiastical  action. 
He  was  so  strenuous  in  his  opposition  to  the  pastoral  letter 
written  by  the  conspicuously  loyal  Bishop  of  Ohio  ^  that  he 
refused  to  appear  in  the  chancel  at  the  service  when  it  was 
read,  and  the  chair  of  the  acting  presiding  bishop  was 
conspicuously  vacant  until  after  its  delivery.  That  which 
marked  his  personal  disapprobation  emphasized  the  more 
the  determined  attitude  of  the  Convention.  It  was  an  at- 
titude which  pronounced  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
a  church  of  the  nation  as  well  as  a  church  ///  the  nation. 
It  exalted  patriotism  above  party,  and  must  have  com- 
manded the  respect,  while  it  awakened  the  regret,  of  the 
churchmen  in  the  Confederate  States,  who  had,  by  the 
creation  of  their  separate  ecclesiastical  organization,  yet 
more  fully  identified  their  new  church  with  the  cause  of 
their  new  government.  Bishop  Hopkins  did  not  stand 
alone  in  his  convictions,  nor  did  these  convictions  involve 

1  Bishop  Mcllvaine,  of  Ohio,  was  one  of  the  distinguished  citizens  (among 
whom  were  Archbishop  Hughes,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  Thurlow  Weed) 
who  had  been  informally  accredited  by  President  Lincoln  to  the  English  peo- 
ple, and  who  went  abroad  at  a  time  when  English  sympathies  for  the  Con- 
federacy seemed  strongest,  and  by  their  personal  influence  effected  much  for 
the  Union  cause.  He  was  received  cordially  by  the  royal  circle  at  Windsor, 
and  with  such  an  imprimatur,  combined  with  his  ability  and  character,  did 
effective  service.  When,  some  years  after,  he  died  abroad,  a  funeral  service 
was  performed  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  his  remains  rested  awhile  in  that 
historic  sanctuary,  until  they  could  be  conveyed  to  the  United  States. 


BISHOP  J.  H.  HOPKINS.  501 

disloyalty  to  the  government.      He  desired  the  perpetuity 
of  the  Union,  but  his  loyalty  was  clogged  by  the  convic- 
tion, expressed  by  him  in  a  pamphlet,  that  secession  was 
a  constitutional    right    of    the   States.      He   proposed   to 
submit  the  question  for  settlement  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
a  procedure   which,    under  the    circumstances,   was    like 
committing  the  management  of  a  coming  cyclone  to  a 
meteorological  bureau.     The  pamphlet  containing  these 
sentiments  was  written,  as  hostilities  were  awakening,  to 
prove  the  right  of  negro  slavery  to  exist  to-day  from  the 
recognition  of  white  slavery  of  old  in  the  Bible.     Thus 
committed  to  the  right  of  secession  and  the  moral  lawful- 
ness of  the  institution  in  whose  defense  it  was  attempted, 
Bishop  Hopkins  was   out   of  sympathy  with  the  public 
sentiment  about  him.      He  did  not  mind  that.     The  per 
fervidum  ingeninvi  of  his  Celtic   blood   inclined  him  to 
controversy,  and  he  had  long  been  conspicuous  in  it.     He 
was  a  man  of  versatile  talents.      Literature,  art,  science, 
music,  as  well  as  law  and  theology,  occupied  at  times  his 
attention,  and  he  was  thus  regarded  more  as  a  widely  read 
than  as  a  deeply  learned  man.    His  legal  training,  which  was 
his  strong  point,  inclined  him  to  rest  content  in  precedent 
rather  than  to  profoundly  study  ultimate  principles.      In 
the  expression  of  his  opinions  there  was  an  assertive  elo- 
quence which  affirmed  the  positlveness  of  his  own  convic- 
tions, and  which  attracted  attention  even  when  it  failed 
to  secure  the  conviction  of  others.      He  had  not  always  ap- 
peared on  the  same  side  of  ecclesiastical  questions,  and  the 
variations  of  the  needle  had  been  too  marked  to  enable  him 
to  point  with  certainty  the  course  which  the  church  might 
think  best  to  follow.     Concerning  the  political  situation  he 
was,  however,  as  dogmatic  as  in  theology,  and  he  deter- 
mined that  the  church  should  follow  his  bent  even  if  it  did 
not  share  his  opinions.      His  design  was  frustrated,  and  his 


502  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.      [Chap,  xvi, 

displeasure  and  disapproval  found  vent  in  a  protest 
printed  for  the  public  and  scattered  broadcast  by  the 
newspapers ;  and  his  pamphlet  on  slavery  was  a  little  later 
reprinted  and  used  as  a  campaign  document. ^  This  action 
gave  an  impression  in  regard  to  the  church  which  threat- 
ened to  becloud  its  loyal  attitude,  and  Bishop  Alonzo  Pot- 
ter, of  Pennsylvania,  published  a  public  protest  against  it. 
The  action  of  Bishop  Hopkins  was  soon  seen  to  be  personal, 
that  of  Bishop  Potter  to  be  representative  of  the  church. 

While  the  action  and  sentiments  of  Bishop  Hopkins 
were  not  suffered  to  damage  the  church's  loyal  position, 
his  consequent  relations  of  sympathy  with  the  South  were 
helpful  in  restoring  unity  when  the  war  ended.  By  that 
time  he  had,  through  the  death  of  Bishop  Brownell  (June 
13,  1865),  become  presiding  bishop  of  the  church.  Before 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Convention  in  the  autumn  of 
1865  he  wrote  in  his  official  capacity  a  circular  letter  to 
all  the  Southern  bishops,  inviting  them  to  the  Convention, 
and  assuring  them  of  a  warm  welcome  from  their  brethren. 
There  was  no  general  response  in  act  to  this  hospitable  in- 
vitation, but  its  moral  effect  was  doubtless  salutary.  It 
was,  however,  not  needed  by  the  old  church.  There  was 
no  heart  but  was  ready  to  greet  the  presence  of  the  bish- 
ops, clergy,  and  laity  for  a  while  estranged  in  act,  but  not 
in  heart.  This  was  abundantly  evident  at  the  opening  ser- 
vice of  the  General  Convention  of  1865,  held  in  St.  Luke's 
Church,  Philadelphia.  The  Bishop  of  North  Carolina  was 
discerned  among  the  crowd  approaching  the  church.  He 
was  at  once  warmly  greeted  and  invited  to  the  chancel  by 
friends  swarming  around  him.  He  at  first  declined,  not 
willing  to  act  alone,  and  sat  in  the  congregation ;  but  when 

1  This  pamphlet  called  forth  a  rejoinder  from  a  distinguished  scholar  of 
the  Church  of  England,  Professor  Goldwin  Smith,  in  one  of  his  ablest  works, 
"  Does  the  Bible  Sanction  American  Slavery?  " 


REUNION. 


503 


some  of  the  bishops  left  the  chancel  and  sought  him  amid 
the  worshipers  and  urged  his  presence  among  them,  the 
public  recognition  was  too  convincing  of  the  general  senti- 
ment, and -he  yielded  and  joined  them  at  the  altar,  to  the 
great  joy  of  all  present.  At  the  first  business  session  of 
the  Convention  the  secretary  of  the  House  of  Deputies 
proceeded,  as  he  had  at  the  Convention  of  1862,  to  call  for 
the  Southern  deputies,  the  roll  beginning  with  Alabama. 
The  general  failure  of  response  did  not  diminish  the  validity 
of  the  recognition,  and  the  answer  to  the  roll-call  by  cleri- 
cal and  lay  delegates  from  Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  and 
Texas  gave  indication  and  promise  that  the  absence  of 
the  South  was  but  temporary.  Bishop  Lay,  of  the  South- 
west, had  joined  Bishop  Atkinson,  of  North  Carohna,  in 
Philadelphia,  and  they  together  sent  an  inquiry,  through 
Bishop  Horatio  Potter,  to  the  House  of  Bishops  concerning 
the  terms  on  which  they  would  be  permitted  to  take  their 
seats  in  the  house.  The  Bishop  of  Maryland,  whose 
loyalty  was  as  unquestioned  as  his  greatness,  moved  that 
"  the  Bishop  of  New  York  be  requested  to  ask  his  brethren, 
in  behalf  of  whom  he  had  consulted  the  house,  to  trust 
to  the  honor  and  love  of  their  assembled  brethren."  Such 
courtesy  and  confidence  were  irresistible.  The  reunion  of 
the  church  was  cemented  by  the  charity  which  "  thinketh 
no  evil."  As  the  church  had  maintained  its  loyalty,  so 
it  could  without  peril  manifest  its  concession ;  and  in  the 
service  of  "  thanksgiving  for  the  restoration  of  peace  to 
the  country  and  unity  to  the  church  "  it  refrained  from 
all  expressions  which  could  wound  those  who  were  once 
again  represented  in  its  assembly.  Some  thought  that  too 
much  deference  was  shown,  but  it  was  an  indication  of  a 
spirit  of  reconciliation  and  peace.  The  few  obstacles  to 
complete  reunion,  as  we  have  before  related,  were  soon 
removed,  and  all  traces  of  strife  presently  vanished  away. 


504  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvl. 

The  church,  which  in  1859  had,  by  the  election  of  Dr.  Tal- 
bot as  Bishop  of  Nebraska  and  the  Northwest,  and  of 
Dr.  Lay  as  Missionary  Bishop  of  Arkansas  and  the  South- 
west, made  its  jurisdiction  coextensive  with  the  boundaries 
of  the  United  States,  was  again  one  throughout  the  whole 
national  domain.  The.  consecration  of  Bishop  Quintard 
for  the  vacant  Southern  diocese  of  Tennessee  crowned  the 
work  of  reunion  by  a  most  significant  act ;  and  the  presence 
and  participation  in  the  service  of  Bishop  Fulford,  metro- 
politan of  Montreal,  contributed  to  a  growing  sense  of 
the  unity  of  the  church  throughout  the  whole  American 
continent. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

FROM  THE  REUNION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  THE  PRESENT 
TIME  (1865-95). 

The  fullness  of  life  which  characterized  the  nation  after 
the  cessation  of  the  war  was  characteristic  also  of  the 
church.  Before  that  lamentable  interruption  of  its  activi- 
ties all  the  elements  of  successful  advance  had  been  found 
present  in  it.  It  had  become  in  1859  coextensive  in  its 
episcopate  with  the  national  domain.  It  was  increasing 
:"ts  educational  institutions.  Its  missionary  operations 
were  thoroughly  organized  and  efficient.  Its  worship  was 
taking  on  a  warmer  tone,  and  its  church  buildings  display- 
ing a  nobler  type.  The  controversies  through  which  it  had 
passed  had  sobered  its  mind  and  softened  its  heart.  Even 
its  course  during  the  war  was  one  of  advancing  growth. 

All  the  favorable  features  of  its  organization  now  re- 
ceived an  impetus  and  an  enlargement  consequent  on  the 
experience  which  the  civil  conflict  had  engendered.  The 
movements  of  armies,  constituted  largely  in  their  ranks  as 
in  their  officers  of  the  educated  classes,  had  given  a  larger 
scope  to  the  general  intelligence.  Men  had  traveled  far, 
and  seen  strange  communities,  and  awakened  to  a  sense  of 
wider  relations,  in  their  pursuit  of  war.  All  forms  of  relig- 
ious belief  and  organization  had  been  jostled  together  in 
the  companionship  of  arms,  and  the  humanitarian  work  of 
the  Sanitary  and  Christian  commissions  had  enlisted  the 
labors  of  Christians  of  every  name.     The  chaplains  of  the 

505 


506  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

army  had  ministered  to  every  variety  of  faith  among  the 
soldiers,  and  had  illustrated  every  variety  of  faith  among 
themselves.  This  larger  association  of  both  laity  and 
clergy  had  widened  their  mental  horizon,  while  the 
solemnities  of  war  had  deepened  religious  conviction.  A 
number  of  the  best  bishops  of  this  latter  period,  such  as 
Elliott  of  Texas,  Galleher  of  Louisiana,  and  Dudley  of 
Kentucky,  came  from  the  officers  of  the  Confederate  army, 
where  they  had  learned  to  know  the  stern  realities  of  life 
and  the  necessity  of  religion  to  meet  and  mitigate  them. 
The  chaplains  of  the  Union  army  and  those  whom  they 
had  served  had  gone  through  the  same  educative  process. 
It  is  not  strange  that  the  church  should  emerge  from  this 
baptism  of  blood  with  a  nobler  consecration  and  an  en- 
larged conception  of  her  task.  That  she  was  not  freed 
from  many  clogging  infirmities  the  record  of  these  last 
thirty  years  abundantly  proves,  but  the  record  also  shows 
a  far  ampler  life  and  an  effort  to  rise  to  far  nobler  concep- 
tions of  her  task  than  had  marked  any  previous  period  of 
her  history.  Her  literature,  which  had  been  chiefly  con- 
troversial and  polemical,  became  more  genuinely  original 
and  spiritually  suggestive.  Not  to  attempt  the  mention 
even  of  the  numerous  volumes  which  illustrate  this  larger 
mental  life,  we  cannot  but  find  in  such  volumes  as 
"The  Church  Idea,"  by  Dr.  William  R.  Huntington, 
"  The  Relation  of  Christianity  to  Civil  Society,"  by  Bishop 
S.  S.  Harris,  the  various  volumes  of  Bishops  Littlejohn 
and  F.  D.  Huntington,  "The  English  Reformation,"  by 
Bishop  John  Williams,  "  The  Primary  Truths  of  Religion," 
by  Bishop  Clark,  "  The  Epochs  of  Church  History,"  by 
Dr.  E.  A.  Washburn,  and  most  notably  the  "  Sermons  "  and 
"  Lectures  on  Preaching,"  by  Phillips  Brooks,  "The  Con- 
tinuity of  Christian  Thought,"  by  Professor  Alexander 
V.  G.  Allen,  and  "  The  Nation  "  and  "  The  Republic  of 


THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARIES.  507 

God,"  by  Rev.  Elisha  Mulford,  a  far  wider  vision  and  a 
deeper  philosophical  conception,  as  well  as  a  nobler  literary 
form,  than  in  any  theological  literature  the  church  had 
previously  produced. 

Again,  in  her  educational  life  the  church  in  the  last 
thirty  years  has  greatly  enlarged,  as  well  as  deepened,  her 
work.  The  Philadelphia  Divinity  School  was  incorporated, 
under  the  auspices  of  Bishop  Alonzo  Potter,  in  the  early 
years  of  the  war,  in  1862,  when  Northern  students  w^ere  cut 
off  from  the  seminary  at  Alexandria.  It  was  founded  in  no 
narrow  spirit,  but  with  the  liberal  conceptions  of  its  great 
patron;  and  its  course,  under  the  able  Dr.  Goodwin,  the 
scholarly  Dr.  G.  Emlen  Hare,  and  the  genial  and  widely  read 
Dr.  Clement  Butler,  has  been  one  of  marked  ability  and 
value.  The  Episcopal  Theological  School  in  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  was  incorporated  just  after  the  war,  in  1867,  founded 
by  the  munificence  of  Mr.  Benjamin  T.  Reed,  and  since 
endowed  with  princely  gifts  by  Mr.  Robert  M.  Mason, 
Mr.  Amos  A.  Lawrence,  and  Mr.  John  A.  Burnham,  all  of 
Boston.  Under  its  successive  deans.  Dr.  John  S.  Stone, 
Dr.  George  Zabriskie  Gray,  and  Dr.  (now  Bishop)  William 
Lawrence,  together  with  its  distinguished  professors,  it 
has  made  itself  a  powder  in  the  church.  In  the  words  of 
Dean  Gray,  "  The  aim  has  been  to  be  independent  of  all 
schools  or  parties,  and  to  make  the  teaching  as  compre- 
hensive as  the  church  itself,  and  as  impartial  toward  all 
loyal  members  thereof."  These  two  institutions,  with  the 
Western  Theological  Seminary,  inaugurated  at  Chicago  in 
1885,  are  the  principal  new  foundations  for  theological 
education  of  this  period,  but  the  schools  earlier  formed 
have  also  greatly  increased  their  efficiency.  The  General 
Theological  Seminary  in  New  York  has  enlarged  its  teach- 
ing faculty  and  developed  its  curriculum  and  multiplied  its 
students  under  the  recent  rule  of  Dean  Hoffman,  whose 


508  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

munificence  haS  increased  its  endowments  and  built  a  theo- 
logical palace  for  its  habitation.  The  Alexandria  seminary 
has,  as  has  been  noted,  been  rejuvenated  since  the  war.  The 
Berkeley  Divinity  School  at  Middletown,  Conn.,  founded  in 
1850,  has  continued  to  send  out  men  whom  the  church  de- 
lights to  make  bishops,  hoping,  doubtless,  that  they  may  in 
a  measure  reflect  the  calm  wisdom  and  intellectual  poise  of 
the  presiding  bishop,  who  is  its  president.  At  the  West, 
Nashotah  has  greatly  strengthened  her  work,  and  the  Sea- 
bury  Divinity  School  at  Faribault,  Minn.,  has,  under  the 
inspiration  of  Bishop  Whipple,  recreated  itself,  and  become 
a  power  which  the  ardent  Breck,  who  founded  it  in  1857, 
could  with  all  his  prophetic  imagination  have  hardly  con- 
ceived. Besides  these  institutions,  where  the  color-line  is 
no  longer  drawn,  special  provisions  for  the  instruction  of 
colored  candidates  for  the  ministry  have  been  made  in  the 
institutions  of  Hoffman  Hall,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  King  Hall 
(in  connection  with  Howard  University),  Washington, 
D.  C,  St.  Augustine  Training-school,  Raleigh,  N.  C,  and 
the  Bishop  Payne  Divinity  School,  Petersburg,  Va. 

In  regard  to  collegiate  institutions,  there  has  not  been 
so  large  an  advance.  St.  Stephen's  College,  which  was 
founded  in  i860,  under  the  inspiration  of  Bishop  Horatio 
Potter,  of  New  York,  by  the  liberality  of  Mr.  John  Bard,  has 
since  been  fortified  in  its  endowments  by  the  liberal  gifts  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Charles  F.  Hoffman  ;  and  Dr..Fairbairn,its  warden, 
has  by  his  devotion  and  scholarly  gifts  added  greatly  to  its 
efficiency.  It  was  chiefly  intended  to  furnish  collegiate 
instruction  for  future  students  for  the  ministry  in  the  Gen- 
eral Theological  Seminary,  and  has  sent  out  men  who  have 
become  distinguished  in  the  church.  From  its  plan  it  can- 
not hope  to  be  a  large  institution,  but  it  has  been  a  useful 
one.  Racine  College,  in  its  efficiency,  really  belongs  to 
this  period  of  church  life;  for  though /ounded  in  1852  to 


COLLEGIATE   INSTITUTIONS.  509 

be  a  sort  of  St.  Stephen's  to  the  Nashotah  Seminary,  its 
whole  effective  life  was  bound  up  in  Dr.  James  De  Koven, 
who  became  warden  in  1859.  Dr.  De  Koven  really  made 
the  institution  all  it  ever  came  to  be.  He  was  a  singularly 
magnetic  man,  and  full  of  enthusiasm,  imbued  with  the 
views  of  the  advanced  school,  and  their  eloquent  defender 
in  the  General  Convention.  He  purposed  making  Racine 
"  the  church  university  of  the  West  and  Northwest  "  ;  and 
it  was  changed  from  a  diocesan  to  a  general  institution  in 
1868,  and  in  1875  collegiate  departments  were  established. 
So  long  as  his  presence  was  assured,  students  flocked  to 
the  college,  and  his  hold  upon  the  young  men  was  ex- 
traordinary. But  four  years  after  his  university  scheme  was 
developed  he  died,  and  from  that  sad  date,  March  19,  1879, 
the  institution  has  been  unable  to  realize  the  expectations 
which  his  genius  had  created  for  it.  It  is  now  conducted 
as' a  grammar-school. 

Lehigh  University,  a  collegiate  and  polytechnic  institu- 
tion, was  founded  and  munificently  endowed  at  South 
Bethlehem  in  1865,  by  Asa  Packer,  a  leading  churchman 
of  the  diocese.  It  is  conducted  under  general  church 
auspices,  but,  like  Columbia  College,  New  York,  is  not  in 
the  restricted  sense  a  church  institution.  It  is  already  a 
great  college,  and  stands  deservedly  high,  especially  in  its 
scientific  departments.  Kenyon  College,  Ohio,  founded  so 
long  ago  by  Bishop  Chase,  is  also,  under  Bishop  Leonard, 
developing  a  new  and  stronger  life,  with  Bexley  Hall  as  its 
theological  department.  In  this  period,  too,  Columbia  Col- 
lege, first  under  President  Barnard  and  since  under  Presi- 
dent Low,  has  developed  into  a  university  of  the  first  rank, 
and  for  scholarly  influence  in  the  church  stands  conspicu- 
ous above  all  its  fellows.  The  munificent  gifts  of  Presi- 
dent Low  and  Mr.  William  C.  Schermerhorn  made  while 
these  sheets  are  passing  through  the  press,  show  the  con- 


5IO  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

fidence  of  its  friends  in  its  future  as  one  of  the  greatest 
collegiate  foundations  in  the  land. 

Hobart  College,  at  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  begun  by  Bishop  Hobart  as  an  academy  in  i8i  i, 
but  which  received  its  collegiate  charter  in  1825  and  took 
the  name  of  its  founder  only  in  i860,  has  within  the  last 
two  decades  made  steady  progress  under  the  presidency  of 
Dr.  Eliphalet  Potter,  brother  of  the  Bishop  of  New  York. 
Recognizing  the  isolation  and  limitation  of  the  scattered 
and  small  church  colleges  through  the  country,  President 
Potter  moved  the  General  Convention  in  1889  to  estab- 
lish "  The  Church  University  Board  of  Regents,"  with  the 
general  purpose  of  coordinating  the  separate  church  col- 
leges into  a  church  university  system.  Already  certain 
scholarships,  to  be  awarded  by  the  university  examining 
board  to  the  best  competitor  from  any  church  institution, 
have  been  founded  and  awarded,  and  should  the  plan 
achieve  its  purpose  it  would  greatly  increase  the  efficiency 
and  raise  the  tone  of  the  scattered  collegiate  institutions  of 
the  church. 

The  most  interesting  and  hopeful  of  tjie  strictly  church 
institutions  which  in  this  period  have  been  virtually  estab- 
lished is  the  University  of  the  South,  at  Sewanee,  Tenn. 
It  was  projected  as  a  great  Southern  university,  by  Bishop 
Polk,  of  Louisiana,  and  other  Southern  bishops  in  1856, 
and  the  corner-stone  of  the  main  central  edifice  was 
laid  in  the  autumn  of  i860.  The  war  swept  everything 
away,  but  within  a  year  after  its  close  the  enterprise  was 
resumed  through  the  exertions  of  the  Bishop  of  Tennessee, 
the  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Ouintard.  It  has  since  grown  largely  in 
everything  but  material  endowment,  which  it  awaits  with 
confidence  of  the  assured  desert.  Its  organization  con- 
sists of  a  grammar-school,  an  academic,  a  theological, 
a  medical,  and  a  law  department;  and  all   the  Southern 


UNIVERSITY  OF   THE   SOUTH.  5  I  I 

bishops  are  on  its  board  of  trustees,  Bishop  Dudley,  of 
Kentucky,  being  chancellor  of  the  university  and  president 
of  the  board.  For  the  details  of  its  history  and  struggle 
there  is  no  space,  but  it  were  unjust  not  to  mention  the 
great  debt  it  owes  for  its  remarkable  measure  of  success  to 
the  ability  and  devotion  of  Dr.  Thomas  F.  Gailor  as  chan- 
cellor, now  assistant  Bishop  of  Tennessee.  According  to 
the  record  of  Dr.  Du  Bose,  the  accomplished  dean  of  its 
theological  faculty,  "  The  University  of  the  South  was 
conceived  in  the  most  catholic  spirit,  and  is  designed 
to  be  in  the  truest  sense  broad  and  comprehensive. 
Under  the  control  and  influence  of  the  church,  it  draws 
to  itself  representatives  of  all  faiths  and  opinions.  The 
North  as  well  as  the  South,  and  England  as  well  as 
America,  have  always  contributed  to  its  list  of  students. 
In  every  department  of  learning  the  utmost  freedom  of 
thought  and  research  is  allowed  and  practiced,  influenced, 
but  not  restrained  or  narrowed,  by  the  Christian  character 
of  the  institution.  As  a  church  university  it  has  this 
guaranty  against  any  one-sided  development  in  matter  of 
doctrine  or  practice,  against  its  ever  becoming  identified 
with  any  one  school  or  party  in  the  church :  that  it  repre- 
sents a  wide  constituency,  and  most  particularly  that  its 
religious  teaching  and  worship  are  under  the  immediate 
and  constant  supervision  of  the  tw'elve  bishops  associated 
in  it."  In  its  endeavor  to  represent  the  whole  church  it 
has  struck  the  true  key-note  of  a  church  institution. 

It  was  the  happy  thought  of  the  late  lamented  Bishop 
Harris,  of  Michigan,  to  utilize  the  State  University  for  the 
use  of  the  church,  instead  of  setting  up  a  feeble  rivalry  to 
it  by  inaugurating  a  separate  church  college.  He  made 
arrangements,  through  the  generous  aid  of  Governor  Bald- 
win, a  leading  churchman  of  his  diocese,  for  a  hall  and 
lecture  and  reading  rooms  at  Ann  Arbor,  where  the  course 


512  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

of  the  State  University  might  be  supplemented  with  lec- 
tures and  instruction  in  those  subjects  which  churchmen 
deem  of  importance,  and  thus  utilizes  for  the  church  the 
State  endowment  and  its  distinguished  faculty,  in  respect 
to  the  general  subjects  which  all  universities  teach  in  com- 
mon. This  most  wise  adaptation  of  church  teaching  to 
the  system  of  public  education  has  met  the  cordial  en- 
couragement of  the  distinguished  President  Angell,  of  the 
University  of  Michigan,  and  of  the  faculty,  and  has  given 
to  the  church  the  advantages  of  an  institution  of  the  first 
rank.  The  example  has  been  followed  elsewhere,  and  is 
deserving  of  larger  application. 

Of  all  the  educational  efforts  in  the  church,  however, 
the  establishment  of  church  preparatory  schools  has  won 
the  largest  measure  of  distinction  and  success.  The  school 
and  college  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg  at  Flushing  and  College 
Point,  besides  their  own  success,  became  the  prolific  seed 
of  similar  institutions.  The  most  prominent  of  these  have 
arisen  within  these  last  thirty  years.  The  College  of  St. 
James,  near  Hagerstown,  Md.,  fostered  with  such  sacrifice 
and  devotion  by  Dr.  Kerfoot  (since  Bishop  of  Pittsburg), 
and  St.  Timothy's  School,  founded  and  taught  by  Dr. 
Van  Bokkelen,  near  Baltimore,  were  both  creations  of  de- 
voted pupils  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg.  The  war  destroyed  the 
former.  But  before  the  war,  in  1855,  St.  Paul's  School  at 
Concord,  N.  H.,  was  incorporated.  Dr.  Shattuck,  a  promi- 
nent and  devoted  layman  of  Boston,  was  its  munificent 
founder  and  benefactor,  giving  his  country-seat  for  its  site, 
and  ever  after  continuing  to  foster  and  extend  it.  It  owes 
its  great  distinction  and  success  to  its  head  master  or 
rector,  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Augustus  Coit,  also  a  pupil  of 
Dr.  Muhlenberg,  who  from  1856  to  1895  guided  its  course 
and  created  its  character.  It  has  always  been  a  school 
imbued  with  church  influences;    in  fine,  a  church  school 


PREPARATORY  SCHOOLS.  513 

where  the  Catechism  has  been  the  basis  of  rehgious  in- 
struction, and  the  ritual  of  the  church  duly  rendered  in 
a  glowing  and  beautiful  service.  Its  aim  has  been  to 
cultivate  Christian  character  as  well  as  to  impart  sound 
scholarship.  And  it  has  been  eminently  successful.  In 
its  influence  on  the  church  schools  which  have  sprung  up 
in  its  wake  all  over  the  land  (notably  St.  Mark's  at  South- 
boro',  the  school  of  Dr.  Peabody  at  Groton,  Mass.,  and  the 
school  of  Dr.  Toomer  Porter  at  Charleston,  S.  C.)  it  has 
stood  as  Rugby  stood  to  the  English  public  schools  after 
Dr.  Arnold  became  its  incomparable  head  master.  From 
a  group  of  five  or  six  boys  it  has  grown  to  an  assemblage 
of  about  three  hundred  scholars.  From  one  or  two  small 
buildings  its  ample  halls  and  dormitories  and  noble  chapel 
have  enlarged  its  appearance  to  that  of  a  village.  And 
this  extension  of  its  outward  features  has  been  but  com- 
mensurate with  and  expressive  of  the  excellence  of  its 
scholarship  and  the  elevation  of  its  moral  tone.  This  great 
work  is  due  in  abounding  measure  to  Dr.  Coit.  It  is,  of 
course,  evident  that  he  was  a  good  scholar,  a  devout  Chris- 
tian, and  a  thorough  gentleman;  but  these  elements  of 
character  are  incompetent  to  explain  his  phenomenal  suc- 
cess, without  the  higher  attribute  of  educational  genius, 
which  was  largely  his.  His  recent  death  is  a  loss  to  the 
whole  church  which  it  is  impossible  to  adequately  measure. 

Numerous  church  schools  for  girls  (of  which  St.  Mary's, 
Burlington,  N.  J.,  still  efficiently  maintained,  was  the  norm 
and  type)  are  found  all  over  the  land  :  in  the  Wolfe  School  at 
Denver,  Colorado,  and  St.  Mary's  Hall,  Faribault,  as  well 
as  in  St.  Agnes's  at  Albany,  and  St.  Mary's,  of  the  Cathe- 
dral Foundation,  at  Garden  City,  Long  Island.  These 
schools  are  a  chief  instrument  of  gaining  and  extending 
church  influence  in  the  newer  missionary  jurisdictions. 

In   fine,   in   the   matter  of   preparatory   education   the 


514  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.     [Chap.  xvii. 

church  schools  within  the  last  thirty  years  have  taken  rank 
with  the  older  foundations  at  Exeter  and  Andover,  and 
stand  in  generous  rivalry  with  them. 

In  its  missionary  activity  the  last  period  of  the  church's 
life  is  more  than  abreast  with  that  of  its  past  history.  It 
owes  much  to  the  able  men  who  have  been  its  agents  and 
secretaries.  One  of  them,  Dr.  A.  T.  Twing,  served  the 
Domestic  Board  from  1866  to  1882,  and  by  incessant  zeal 
and  incomparable  tact  invigorated  the  whole  department. 
In  1863  the  contributions  for  domestic  missions  were 
$37,458  ;  in  1882  they  amounted  to  $228,375.  When  Dr. 
Twing  became  secretary  there  were  but  four  missionary 
bishops  and  ninety-nine  missionaries;  when  he  died  these 
had  increased  to  thirteen  missionary  bishops  and  three 
hundred  and  forty-six  clergymen.  Among  them  are 
numbered  some  of  the  noblest  sons  of  the  church,  whose 
indefatigable  labors  have  laid  sure  foundations  for  her  future 
in  the  Western  territories.  The  record  of  their  names  is 
inspiring  to  all  who  have  known  of  their  denials  and  de- 
votion. There  are  Clarkson  of  Nebraska,  Randall  of  Colo- 
rado, Tuttle  of  Utah  (now  of  Missouri),  Morris  of  Oregon, 
and  Whitaker  of  Nevada  (now  of  Pennsylvania),  all  ap- 
pointed after  the  war  and  before  1 870.  Since  then,  in  1873, 
William  Hobart  Hare  was  consecrated  for  Niobrara  (now 
South  Dakota),  the  first  missionary  bishop  appointed  es- 
pecially for  the  Indians,  though  Bishop  Whipple,  of  Min- 
nesota, had  by  his  devotion  to  the  native  tribes  within  his 
jurisdiction  already  won  the  title  of  "Apostle  to  the  In- 
dians." The  remarkable  success  of  Bishop  Hare  in  this 
rough  field  is  due  to  the  admirable  efficiency  and  unremit- 
ting toil  of  a  refined  scholar,  gifted  with  common  sense,  by 
which  he  has  shown  himself  to  be  a  worthy  descendant  of 
his  grandfather,  Bishop  Hobart,  whose  labors  for  the  Oneida 
Indians  of  New  York  were  so  earnest  and  unremitting. 


DOMESTIC  MISSIONS.  515 

And  there  are  Spalding  of  Colorado,  Elliott  of  Western 
Texas,  Wingfield  of  Northern  California,  Garrett  of  North- 
ern Texas,  Dunlop  of  New  Mexico,  Brewer  of  Montana,  and 
Paddock  of  Washington,  all  sent  out  to  "  perils  in  the  wil- 
derness "  before  1880  had  ended.  Within  the  last  decade 
we  find  added  to  this  efficient  staff  Walker  of  North  Da- 
kota, Talbot  of  Wyomihg.  and  Idaho,  Johnson  of  Western 
Texas,  Leonard  of  Nevada  and  Utah,  Kendrick  of  Arizona 
and  New  Mexico,  Graves  of  the  Platte,  Wells  of  Spokane, 
Gray  of  Southern  Florida,  Brooke  of  Oklahoma,  and  Barker 
of  Western  Colorado.  A  record  of  names  is  but  a  slight 
tribute  to  labors  such  as  theirs,  and  only  a  faint  indication 
of  the  vast  results  accomplished  by  them  for  the  church. 
While  planting  churches  and  founding  schools,  these  have 
confronted  the  Mormon  with  her  message,  and  welcomed 
the  Indian  to  her  fold. 

In  the  department  of  foreign  missions  the  church  does 
not  show  a  proportionate  development,  and  for  the  reason 
that  domestic  missions  are  largely  foreign,  in  their  ministra- 
tions to  the  natives  of  all  European  and  Eastern  countries 
who  throng  the  Western  territories.  China,  Japan,  India, 
Armenia,  as  well  as  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  continue 
sending  swarms  of  their  poorer  people  to  America,  with  no 
shepherd  to  fold  them,  and  foreign  missions  lie  at  our  very 
door.  But  the  church  has  in  this  period  sent  out  witnesses 
to  other  lands.  As  she  had  preceded  the  English  Church 
in  appointing  a  bishop  for  China  in  1844,  so,  after  Japan 
had  been  opened  to  the  Western  world  by  Commodore 
Perry,  in  1852,  she  preceded  her  mother  in  that  country. 
Two  missionaries  were  sent  to  Japan  in  1859,  and  one  of 
them,  the  Rev.  Channing  M.  Williams,  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Yedo  in  1866,  taking  also  jurisdiction  in  China, 
Bishop  Boone  having  died  two  years  before.  Incessant 
toil  and  slow  gains  marked  his  episcopate  at   first;    but 


5l6  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

"  steadfast,  with  a  singleness  of  aim,"  he  got  at  last  a  foot- 
hold for  his  admirable  mission  and  established  an  efficient 
divinity  school,  as  well  as  St.  Paul's  College,  at  Tokyo. 
Under  the  able  management  of  Rev.  Theodosius  S.  Tyng, 
these  schools  are  educating  natives  for  missionary  work, 
and  children  in  the  Christian  faith.  After  the  resignation 
of  Bishop  Williams,  in  1889,  the  Rev.  John  McKim,  D.D., 
was  consecrated  his  successor  as  Bishop  of  Tokyo.  The 
fruits  of  the  church's  labors  in  Japan  are  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  it  possesses  76  mission  stations,  20  clergy,  i  mis- 
sionary physician,  25  foreign  teachers  and  workers  (includ- 
ing wives  of  missionaries),  153  Japanese  assistants,  17  pos- 
tulants for  orders  ;  and  that  its  last  yearly  record  shows  273 
baptisms,  25  i  confirmations,  1597  communicants,  1 141  day- 
scholars,  226  boarding-scholars,  and  21 13  Sunday-school 
scholars. 

In  China  the  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Schereschewsky  succeeded 
Bishop  Williams  in  1877,  and  his  translation  of  the  Bible 
into  the  Mandarin  language  is  a  work  of  rare  scholarship 
and  of  inestimable  value.  Ill  health  compelled  him  to  re- 
sign his  position  in  1884;  but  in  sickness  as  in  health  he 
continues  his  literary  labors  for  the  mission.  His  successor 
in  the  bishopric,  the  Rt.  Rev.  William  J.  Boone,  a  son  of  the 
first  bishop  sent  to  China,  died  in  1891,  and  has  been  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Rt.  Rev.  F.  R.  Graves,  D.D.,  who  was  con- 
secrated in  1893.  The  state  of  the  mission  as  last  reported 
is  as  follows :  mission  stations,  42  ;  clergy,  34 ;  missionary 
physicians,  4;  lay  foreign  teachers,  16;  native  assistants, 
95  ;  candidates  for  orders,  5  ;  medical  students,  8  ;  baptisms, 
238;  confirmations,  147;  communicants,  889;  Sunday- 
school  scholars,  1226;  day  and  boarding  scholars,  1187. 

In  1874  the  Rev.  James  T.  Holly,  a  colored  man,  well 
qualified  for  the  work,  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Haiti. 
The  church  under  his  care  is  not  wholly  self-supporting, 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  5  I  7 

but  receives  aid  from  the  church  in  the  United  States.  Its 
condition  in  1894  was  as  follows:  clergy,  14;  mission  sta- 
tions, 15;  postulants,  2;  lay  readers,  19;  teachers,  10; 
Sunday-schoolteachers,  10;  baptisms,  51;  confirmations, 
33  ;  communicants,  389;  day-scholars,  244;  Sunday-school 
scholars,  229.  There  is  also  a  mission  in  Cuba,  conducted 
by  an  American  and  two  native  presbyters,  under  the  epis- 
copal charge  of  Bishop  Whitaker,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  in 
the  care  of  the  American  Church  Missionary  Society,  act- 
ing as  an  auxiliary  to  the  Board  of  Missions.  A*  Brazilian 
mission  under  the  same  care,  and  superintended  by  Bishop 
Peterkin,  of  West  Virginia,  is  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Lucius 
L.  Kingsolving  and  various  native  clergy.  In  1894  it  re- 
ported: stations,  14;  chapels,  6;  clergy,  8;  baptisms,  50; 
confirmations,  142;  communicants,  174;  services,  838; 
Sunday-schools,  4;  teachers,  16;  scholars,  235;  parochial 
day-schools,  3;  teachers,  8;  scholars,  120. 

The  mission  to  Africa  has  been  sustained,  though  out  of 
the  87  missionaries  sent,  all  but  3  have  died  or  have  returned 
on  account  of  ill  health,  and  though  all  the  Southern  bishops 
are  more  or  less  African  missionaries  in  their  charge  over 
the  colored  race.  It  has  met  with  a  series  of  misfortunes 
either  in  the  death  or  the  resignations,  made  necessary  by 
the  fatal  climate,  of  those  appointed  to  its  episcopal  super- 
vision. Bishop  Payne,  appointed  in  1851,  resigned  after 
twenty  years  of  faithful  labor,  in  1871  ;  and  his  successor. 
Bishop  Auer,  appointed  in  1873,  soon  after  died.  Bishop 
Penick,  consecrated  in  1877,  had  to  resign  in  1883,  but 
still  continues  earnestly  laboring  for  the  race  in  America, 
as  the  energetic  agent  of  the  church's  Commission  for  Work 
among  the  Colored  People.  His  place  in  Africa  has  been 
taken  by  the  colored  Bishop  Ferguson,  as  bishop  of  the 
missionary  jurisdiction  of  Cape  Palmas  and  parts  adjacent. 
He  was  appointed  in  1885,  and  by  reason  of  his  race,  it  is 


5l8  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

hoped,  will  be  capable  of  withstanding  the  ravages  of  the 
malarious  climate.  The  condition  of  the  mission  is  shown 
in  the  following  statistics  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1894:  clergy,  16;  mission  stations,  53;  candidates  for 
orders  (Liberian  6,  native  3),  9 ;  postulants  (Liberian  6, 
native  i),  7;  lay  readers,  18;  catechists  and  teachers,  30; 
female  teachers,  13;  baptisms,  250;  confirmations,  118; 
communicants,  1185;  Sunday-school  scholars,  1552; 
boarding  and  day  scholars,  1293.  There  are  23  day- 
schools,  \2  boarding-schools,  and  31  Sunday-schools  in 
all  connected  with  the  mission. 

The  Commission  for  Work  among  the  Colored  People 
may  be  fittingly  mentioned  here,  though  its  place  is  in  the 
department  of  domestic  missions.  It  was  in  1 886  that  the 
General  Convention  formally  recognized  this  special  form 
of  missionary  labor,  which  had  been  informally  carried  on 
since  1865,  by  the  churches  in  various  dioceses;  and  which 
was  a  product  of  the  war  in  its  enfranchisement  of  the 
negro  slaves.  A  commission  was  appointed  for  this  special 
work  under  the  Board  of  Missions,  and  in  various  forms  of 
organization  has  continued  its  labors  ever  since. 

The  total  number  of  colored  clergy  now  at  work  is  68  ; 
of  these  41  are  in  priests'  orders  and  13  are  employed  in 
Northern  cities.  In  addition,  52  white  clergy  are  wholly 
or  in  part  engaged  in  the  same  department  in  the  South. 
Of  the  5  archdeacons  devoted  exclusively  to  the  work  of 
extending  the  influence  of  the  church  among  the  colored 
people  in  the  several  dioceses  under  the  bishops'  direction, 
2  are  colored. 

In  the  sixteen  Southern  States  aided  by  the  Commission, 
representing  nineteen  dioceses,  with  a  population  of  about 
7,500,000,  there  cannot  be  fewer  than  6000  communicants 
at  the  present  time.  The  Bishop  of  Southern  Florida  re- 
ports one  seventh  of  the  whole  number  of  communicants 


THE  MEXICAN  MISSION.  519 

as  black,  and  the  Bishop  of  Georgia  reports  one  tenth  of 
the  communicants  in  his  diocese  as  black. 

The  mission  in  Mexico  is  still  carried  on,  though  the 
original  organization  of  the  Reformed  Church  there  is,  by 
the  church's  own  action,  temporarily  in  abeyance.  The 
government  is  now  in  the  Ciierpo  Ecclesiastico,  which  con- 
sists of  the  clergy  and  lay  representatives  of  the  congre- 
gations, the  episcopal  authority  being,  by  election  of  the 
Cnerpo,  in  the  presiding  bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church.  The  Bishop  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  is 
the  commissary  of  the  presiding  bishop,  with  power  to  act 
for  him  ;  and  the  presbyter,  Henry  Forrester,  is  the  resi- 
dent representative  in  Mexico,  appointed  to  guide  and 
counsel  the  local  authorities.  Its  present  status  is  seen  by 
the  following  statistics :  priests,  5  ;  deacons,  2  ;  candidates 
for  orders,  5  ;  other  readers,  7  ;  congregations,  22  ;  day- 
schools  in  same,  10;  teachers,  10;  scholars,  400.  This 
mission  has  caused  the  church  more  perplexity  and  disap- 
pointment than  all  the  others  combined.  A  reformed 
movement  arose  in  1854  among  the  Roman  clergy  in  the 
city  of  Mexico,  and,  failing  to  gain  favorable  response  to 
their  application  to  the  Pope,  in  1866  they  chose  a  bishop 
and  applied  to  the  presiding  bishop  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  for  his  consecration.  The  constitutional 
provisions  of  this  church  did  not  allow  it.  A  visiting  com- 
mission from  Mexico  in  1868  secured  the  services  of  the 
Rev.  H.  C.  Riley,  presbyter  of  the  church,  who  returned 
with  them,  and  gathered,  in  company  with  Aguas,  a  Roman 
priest  of  high  standing,  several  congregations,  and  organ- 
ized a  Synod.  In  response  to  a  memorial  from  "  members 
of  the  Synod  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  in  Mexico,"  pre- 
sented to  the  House  of  Bishops  at  the  General  Convention 
of  1874  by  Bishop  Lee,  of  Delaware,  a  commission  of  great 
dignity,  comprising  the  names  of  Whittingham,  Stevens, 


520  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

Littlejohn,  Lee,  Coxe,  Bedell,  and  Kerfoot,  was  appointed 
to  consider  their  petition  "  to  take  such  measures  as  may- 
lead  to  the  granting  of  the  episcopate  "  to  the  new  Mexican 
church  organization.  At  the  instance  of  this  committee 
Bishop  Lee  made  a  visitation  to  Mexico,  confirming  over  a 
hundred  persons  and  ordaining  seven  men  as  deacons  and 
then  as  priests.  As  a  result  of  this  visitation  the  Church 
of  Jesus  was  recognized  as  a  foreign  church  under  the  care 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  until  it  should  have  a 
sufficient  number  of  bishops ;  assent  having  been  given  to 
its  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship.  Dr.  Riley  was  con- 
secrated Bishop  of  the  Valley  of  Mexico  in  1879,  in  Pitts- 
burg, Pa.  The  appointment  proved  unsatisfactory,  and 
after  five  years,  in  April,  1884,  Bishop  Riley  resigned  his 
jurisdiction,  promising  to  forego  all  exercise  of  his  episco- 
pal office  in  Mexico  or  elsewhere  without  the  consent  of 
the  Mexican  Commission,  or  other  lawful  authority  of  the 
church  from  which  he  received  his  orders.  In  the  mean- 
time, in  1883,  the  Cnerpo  Ecclesiastico  had  been  recognized 
by  the  Mexican  Commission  as  the  representative  body  of 
the  new  church  organization,  which  was,  as  a  mission,  taken 
under  the  care  of  the  church  in  the  United  States.  The 
bishops  approved  this  action,  and  the  Commission  was  dis- 
charged with  thanks.  The  Rev.  William  B.  Gordon  was 
nominated  by  the  presiding  bishop,  and  appointed  as  coun- 
sel and  guide  of  the  ecclesiastical  body  in  Mexico ;  and  on 
his  resignation,  in  1893,  the  Rev.  Henry  Forrester  became 
his  successor,  and  has  efficiently  carried  on  the  work.^ 

The  perplexities  of  the  whole  affair  to  those  within  the 
Commission  were  increased  by  the  criticism  of  those  with- 
out who  considered  the  movement  an  unlawful  intrusion 

1  For  a  fuller  account  of  the  difficulties  of  the  Mexican  movement  see  "  The 
Church  in  America,"  by  Leighton  Coleman,  Bishop  of  Delaware,  pp.  286-295, 
to  which  the  above  account  is  greatly  indebted. 


FOREIGN  CHURCHES.  521 

into  the  province  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  House  of 
Bishops,  however,  simply  acted  on  the  principle,  without 
explicitly  defining  it,  that  when  the  sacraments  are  denied 
and  excommunication  is  threatened  to  those  who  do  not 
accept  the  errors  which  the  English  Church .  rejected  at 
the  Reformation,  then  a  purer  form  of  the  church  may 
be  lawfully  introduced.  They  saw  that  to  refuse  compli- 
ance with  a  request  like  that  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  in 
Mexico  would  be  to  reflect  on  the  validity  of  their  own 
principles  and  position,  as  well  as  to  deprive  of  the  benefits 
of  the  church  those  who  were  excommunicate  because  they 
were  in  essential  agreement  with  themselves.  The  law  of 
etiquette,  they  felt,  must  give  way  to  the  law  of  life. 

Other  missions  have  been  carried  on  in  the  church,  if 
not  always  by  it.  There  is  a  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  Christianity  among  the  Jews,  and  also  for  Work  among 
the  Colored  People,  as  has  been  stated.  A  very  noble 
effort  for  ministrations  of  the  church  to  deaf-mutes  was  or- 
ganized as  early  as  1850,  but  its  efificiency  has  been  chiefly 
confined  to  this  period  of  the  church's  history,  and  it  has 
been  especially  championed  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Gal- 
laudet,  of  New  York,  under  whose  efficient  labors  it  has 
come  to  pass  that  the  majority  of  the  fifty  thousand  deaf- 
mutes  of  the  country  are  under  the  influence  of  the 
church's   teaching. 

The  churches  and  chapels  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
may  here  be  mentioned,  not  as  a  part  of  the  church's  mis- 
sion work,  but  as  illustrating  the  expansion  of  her  organiza- 
tion wherever  her  children  are  gathered.  Such  churches 
ha\^e  grown  up  gradually  where  an  American  colony  has 
established  itself,  as  in  Paris,  Rome,  Florence,  Nice,  Dres- 
den, Geneva,  and  Lucerne.  The  chief  church  abroad  is  the 
Holy  Trinity  at  Paris,  whose  rector.  Rev.  John  B.  Morgan, 
D.D.,  has  been   able   to   have   built   one   of    the   noblest 


522  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

modern  church  edifices  in  Europe,  whose  organization  is  a 
distinct  rehgious  power  in  the  French  capital.  St.  Paul's  at 
Rome,  under  the  charge  for  many  years  of  R.  J.  Nevin, 
D.D.,  with  its  beautiful  edifice,  stands  for  a  pure  catholicity 
in  the  midst  of  the  papal  city,  and  with  its  hospital  and 
trained  nurses  illustrates  its  practical  benevolence.  Nice, 
Geneva,  and  Dresden  have  also  fine  church  structures  and 
do  effective  work.  These  churches  all  form  part  of  the 
home  church,  and  are  under  the  charge  at  the  present  time 
of  the  Bishop  of  Albany,  who  visits  them  and  confirms  in 
them. 

All  sorts  of  benevolent  institutions  have  arisen  in  the 
church  within  this  last  period  of  its  history.  Church  hos- 
pitals for  children,  for  cripples,  for  adults,  homes  for  the 
aged,  the  infirm,  the  incurable.  Girls'  Friendly  Societies, 
and  other  helpful  associations,  have  multiplied ;  and  the 
humanity  of  Christ  as  well  as  his  divinity  has  found  ex- 
pression in  abounding  works  of  benevolence.^ 

One  signal  benefit  has  lately  come  to  the  church's  life  in 
the  development  of  women's  work.  A  prominent  illustra- 
tion of  this  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  to  the 
Board  of  Missions.  It  had  been  preceded  by  the  Bureau 
of  Relief,  founded  in  1865  at  Hartford,  Conn.,  by  the  present 
Bishop  of  Albany,  who  was  then  Dr.  W.  C.  Doane,  rector 
of  St.  John's  Church  in  that  city;  and  also  by  the  Ladies' 
Domestic  Missionary  Relief  Association  of  Grace  Church, 
New  York  City,  which  was  founded  in  1868  by  the  present 
Bishop  of  New  York,  who  was  then  Dr.  H.  C.  Potter, 

1  The  Rev.  T.  M.  Peters,  D.D.,  Archdeacon  of  New  York,  and  rector  of 
St.  Michael's  Church,  was,  after  Dr.  Muhlenl^erg,  the  wisest  and  most  effi- 
cient worker  in  church  charities  of  his  day.  There  are  few  of  the  benevolent 
institutions  of  New  York  City  whicli  he  did  not  personally  organize  or  directly 
influence.  He  was  a  typical  man  of  a  typical  time;  a  humanitarian  touched 
Avith  sympathy  for  all  human  needs,  a  churchman  of  high  principles  and  de- 
voted life.  His  early  and  constant  advocacy  of  free  churches  was  awakened 
by  his  love  of  the  poor.      He  died  in  1893,  honored  of  all  men. 


THE    WOMAN'S  AUXILIARY.  523 

rector  of  the  parish.  But  these  and  other  similar  associa- 
tions were  simply  local  and  isolated  parochial  organizations. 
The  Woman's  Auxiliary,  as  a  general  church  organization, 
was  authorized  by  the  Board  of  Missions  in  October,  1871. 
It  owes  its  great  measure  of  success  largely  to  the  wise 
plans  and  indefatigable  labors  of  its  secretaries,  the  first 
of  whom.  Miss  Mary  A.  Emery  (who  now,  as  Mrs.  A.  T. 
Twing,  is  honorary  secretary),  for  four  years  worked  as- 
siduously to  fix  and  extend  its  organization,  and  who  was 
succeeded  by  her  sister.  Miss  Julia  C.  Emery,  its  present 
secretary,  who  has  shown  equal  capacity  in  the  manage- 
ment and  extension  of  what  is  now  a  great  organization. 
It  is  not  a  self-constituted  and  independent  society,  but 
is  a  department  of  the  Board  of  Missions  which  seeks  to 
glean  the  fields  already  harvested.  It,  together  with  the 
Junior  Auxiliary,  which  enlists  the  interest  of  the  children 
and  young  people  of  the  church,  adds  over  $350,000  an- 
nually (in  money  and  the  value  of  boxes  of  clothing  and 
books)  to  the  general  missionary  treasury,  and  in  the 
twenty-three  years  of  its  existence  has  gathered  over 
$4,000,000  for  missionary  work.  Besides  its  general  offi- 
cers, the  auxiliary  has  over  five  hundred  diocesan  officers 
in  sixty-five  dioceses  and  missionary  jurisdictions,  includ- 
ing the  officers  of  the  Junior  Auxiliary.  It  has  aided  ma- 
terially in  a  few  instances  in  the  education  of  the  children 
of  missionaries.  The  auxiliary  meets  once  in  three  years, 
at  the  time  and  place  of  meeting  of  the  General  Convention. 
Its  diocesan  branches  meet  annually,  semi-annually,  quar- 
terly, monthly,  or  otherwise,  as  determined  in  the  respective 
dioceses.  Apart  from  the  work  it  has  done,  the  missionary 
spirit  and  interest  it  has  aroused  have  been  of  incalculable 
service  to  the  church. 

In  regard  to  sisterhoods,  the  General  Convention  has 
thought  best  to  leave  their  regulations  untrammeled  by 


524  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

canonical  provisions.  The  first  sisterhood  arose^  as  we 
have  seen,  in  the  parish  of  the  Holy  Communion,  New  York, 
under  the  auspices  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  in  1843.  It  was  not 
formally  constituted  until  1 852,  nor  was  the  first  sister  form- 
ally admitted  by  special  service  until  1857.  It  has  proved 
the  germ  of  many  others  more  or  less  like  it.  The  Sister- 
hood of  the  Good  Shepherd,  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  became  a 
community  in  1863,  though  it  was  inaugurated  earlier  by 
Dr.  Rankin ;  and  in  New  York  the  Sisterhood  of  St.  Mary 
came  into  being  in  1865,  and  that  of  the  Good  Shepherd 
in  1869.  The  English  Sisterhoods  of  St.  Margaret  and 
St.  John  the  Baptist  have  branches  respectively  in  Boston 
and  New  York.  Being  unreported  to  any  ecclesiastical 
body,  the  record  both  of  their  number  and  their  work  is 
necessarily  incomplete. 

In  regard  to  deaconesses,  we  may  trace  their  origin  to 
Dr.  Muhlenberg  and  Bishop  Alonzo  Potter,  in  connection 
with  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  New  York,  and  the  Episcopal 
Hospital  of  Philadelphia,  before  this  period  of  church  life 
begins;  and  in  Mobile,  Ala.,  a  diocesan  order  of  deacon- 
esses was  instituted  in  1864.  The  efTort  to  revive  the  order 
of  deaconesses  through  church  legislation  dates  from  the 
General  Convention  of  187 1,  when,  on  motion  of  the  Rev. 
W.  R.  Huntington,  D.D.,  a  joint  committee  was  appointed 
to  investigate  and  report  upon  the  expediency  of  reviving 
the  primitive  order  of  deaconesses.  The  canon  it  recom- 
mended was  not  accepted.  The  subject  was  renewed  in 
the  General  Conventions  at  Boston  in  1874  and  at  New 
York  in  1880;  but  not  until  1889,  just  eighteen  years  after 
the  words  "  order  of  deaconesses  "  had  been  first  uttered  in 
the  House  of  Deputies,  was  the  present  canon  reported  and 
adopted.  Under  this  canon  of  1889  two  training-schools 
have  been  established :  one  in  New  York,  begun  October, 
1890;  and  the  other  in  Philadelphia,  started  a  little  later. 


DEA  CONESSES.  525 

The  New  York  school  has  already  graduated  fourteen 
pupils,  nine  of  whom  are  actively  engaged  in  their  calling. 
There  is  a  deaconess  house,  called  St.  Faith's,  giv^en  by 
Grace  Church,  which  gathered  the  means  for  it ;  and  a  reg- 
ular course  of  instruction,  covering  two  years,  is  conducted 
by  a  faculty  consisting  of  a  dean  and  ten  assisting  in- 
structors. This  is  in  fulfillment  of  the  canon  which  requires 
that  every  deaconess,  before  she  is  set  apart  for  that  office, 
shall  have  had  "  an  adequate  preparation  for  her  work, 
both  technical  and  religious,  which  preparation  shall  have 
covered  the  period  of  two  years."  The  Philadelphia  school 
is  also  admirably  conducted,  making,  perhaps,^practical  par- 
ticipation in  church  work  a  more  prominent  feature  in  its 
course  than  the  New  York  school.  The  demand  for  dea- 
conesses for  parish  and  mission  work  is  far  greater  than  the 
supply,  and  there  is  every  prospect  that  this  channel  for 
the  labors  of  devout  women  will  extend  with  rapidity,  to 
the  great  advantage  of  the  church's  work  and  the  quicken- 
ing of  its  life. 

The  latest  phase  of  organization  for  the  more  efficient 
conduct  of  church  administration  is  the  archdeaconry  sys- 
tem, which  has  only  within  the  last  decade  been  introduced 
into  some  dioceses.  It  is  a  modification  of  the  English 
system,  the  archdeacon  being  simply  the  representative 
agent  of  the  bishop  in  the  management  of  the  missionary 
interests  of  his  district.  Local  missions  being  an  essential 
part  of  the  work  of  every  diocese  in  -a  country  which  is 
nowhere,  save  in  cities,  densely  settled,  the  chief  aid  which 
a  bishop  requires  is  in  this  direction.  The  importance  of 
planting  and  cherishing  new  centers  of  church  life  in  a 
growing  community  is  so  apparent,  and  the  oversight  and 
regulation  of  such  enterprises  require  so  much  attention, 
that  the  archdeaconry  system  has  arisen,  not  to  copy  a  for- 
eign fashion,  but  to  meet  a  real  emergency.     The  success 


526  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

which  has  attended  its  working  where  it  has  been  intro- 
duced is  prophetic  of  its  universal  adoption. 

As  a  contribution  toward  the  more  efficient  working  of 
the  church  system,  the  cathedral  holds  a  tentative  position 
among  the  forces  recently  evoked.  It  was  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  treating  that  a  ca- 
thedral organization  was  effected  in  Chicago  by  the  Bishop 
of  Illinois,  the  Rt.  Rev.  H.  J.  Whitehouse,  D.D.,  and  an 
edifice  of  moderate  size  erected.  This  was  the  first  em- 
bodiment of  the  cathedral  idea  in  the  country.  It  was 
later  followed  by  like  attempts  in  Milwaukee,  Faribault, 
Omaha,  Topeka,  Denver,  Davenport,  and  other  places  in 
the  West,  and  in  Portland,  Me.,  in  the  East.  These  cathe- 
dral establishments  are  rather  the  germs  for  a  future  de- 
velopment than  a  full  realization  of  the  cathedral  system. 
Neither  in  the  size  and  dignity  of  the  churches  and  their 
endowments,  nor  in  the  constitution  of  their  chapters,  are 
they  more  than  prophecies  of  a  completed  cathedral  organ- 
ization. But  quite  recently  at  the  East  the  system  has 
received  an  impetus  and  a  reinforcement  in  the  gift  to  the 
diocese  of  Long  Island,  of  the  handsome  and  costly  struc- 
ture of  the  Church  of  the  Incarnation  at  Garden  City  for 
a  cathedral  church.  The  gift  of  the  edifice  has,  since  the 
death  of  the  donors,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  A.  T.  Stewart,  of  New 
York  City,  been  supplemented,  by  their  legacies,  with  a 
handsome  endowment.  Here  the  full  service  of  a  cathedral 
is  impressively  performed,  and  a  regular  cathedral  organ- 
ization established  and  carried  on.  It  is  made  the  center 
of  the  missionary  work  of  the  diocese.  At  Albany,  N.  Y., 
Bishop  Doane  by  ceaseless  diligence  has  established  the 
organization  of  the  Cathedral  of  All  Saints,  and  reared  for 
it  a  fitting  habitation  in  a  noble  structure  which,  though 
incomplete,  is  of  adequate  proportions  and  sufficient  dignity 
to  illustrate  the  cathedral  idea  and  symbolize  the  strength 


CA  THEDKALS.  527 

of  the  diocese.  In  New  York  City  the  project  of  a 
cathedral  was  started  during"  the  episcopate  of  Bishop 
Horatio  Potter,  and  an  act  of  incorporation  was  secured  for 
it.  Nothing  was  done  for  its  reahzation  until  the  present 
bishop,  the  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter,  D.D.,  came  into  office. 
Under  his  auspices  the  work  has  been  vigorously  under- 
taken. Sufficient  funds  have  been  gathered  by  a  few 
munificent  donations  and  legacies  to  purchase  a  command- 
ing site,  to  secure  noble  architectural  plans,  and  to  begin 
the  erection  of  the  choir  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  John  the 
Divine.  The  corner-stone  was  laid  with  impressive  cere- 
monies on  St.  John's  day,  1892.  The  constitution  of  the 
cathedral  corporation  makes  this  in  reality  the  bishop's  seat 
and  church.  In  constituting  the  archdeacons  of  the  diocese, 
w4io  are  the  chief  supervisors  of  diocesan  missionary  work, 
members  of  the  chapter,  and  by  other  features,  the  cathedral 
constitution  aims  at  creating,  not  a  medieval  anachronism, 
but  an  efficient  engine  and  organ  for  modern  diocesan  ac- 
tivities. 

This  new  method  for  effective  administration  of  the  dio- 
ceses indicates  the  growth  and  strength  of  the  church,  in 
that  it  has  become  necessary  notwithstanding  the  multi- 
plication of  new  dioceses  by  the  division  of  the  older  ones. 
This  division,  or  the  formation  of  smaller  dioceses  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  States,  with  which  the  dioceses  were 
originally  coterminous,  is  a  marked  feature  of  the  church 
of  this  period.  What  had  required  the  most  cogent  argu- 
ments and  the  most  unceasing  effort  of  Bishop  Whittingham 
and  others  to  effect  in  1837,  inregard  to  the  division  of  the 
diocese  of  New  York,  has  gone  on  with  vigor  ever  since. 
In  1868  the  diocese  of  New  York  was  divided  into  three: 
New  York,  Albany,  and  Long  Island.  In  the  same  year 
Western  New  York  was  divided  by  the  setting  off  of 
Central  New  York.      Maryland  in  the  same  year  consti- 


528  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

tuted  the  Eastern  Shore  of  the  State  the  diocese  of  Easton. 
Still  earlier,  in  1865,  Pennsylvania  had  set  off  the  diocese 
of  Pittsburg,  and  later,  in  1871,  the  diocese  of  Central 
Pennsylvania.  The  movement  toward  smaller  dioceses  has 
since  then  continuously  gone  on,  until  most  of  the  older 
dioceses  outside  New  England  have  now  been  divided.  In 
what  constituted  old  Virginia  there  are  now  the  dioceses  of 
Virginia,  West  Virginia,  and  Southern  Virginia;  in  Ohio 
the  dioceses  of  Ohio  and  Southern  Ohio ;  in  Illinois  the 
three  dioceses  of  Chicago,  Ouincy,  and  Springfield.  Michi- 
gan has  set  off  Western  Michigan  as  a  diocese,  and  North- 
ern Michigan  as  a  missionary  jurisdiction.  Missouri  has 
been  divided  into  Missouri  and  West  Missouri.  Texas  has 
set  off  the  missionary  jurisdictions  of  Northern  and  West- 
ern Texas.  North  Carolina  has  set  off  the  diocese  of  East 
Carolina.  California  has  constituted  Northern  California 
a  missionary  jurisdiction,  and  Colorado,  Western  Colo- 
rado. Dakota  has  separated  into  North  and  South  Dakota, 
and  Nebraska  has  set  off  the  Platte  as  a  missionary  juris- 
diction. Washington  is  now  divided  into  the  missionary 
jurisdictions  of  Spokane  and  Olympia,  as  earlier  it  was 
itself  an  offshoot  from  the  diocese  of  Oregon.  Wisconsin  is 
divided  into  the  dioceses  of  Milwaukee  and  Fond  du  Lac, 
New  Jersey  into  New  Jersey  and  Newark,  and  Florida 
has  set  off  Southern  Florida  as  a  missionary  jurisdiction. 
Maryland  also  has  just  resolved  to  ask  the  General  Con- 
vention to  set  off  the  District  of  Columbia  and  four  con- 
tiguous counties  as  the  diocese  of  Washington. 

Thus  the  thirty-three  dioceses  of  1865  have  expanded 
into  fifty-three  dioceses  and  seventeen  missionary  jurisdic- 
tions in  1895. 

This  subdivision  of  States  into  a  number  of  smaller 
dioceses  has  suggested  the  necessity  of  the  provincial  sys- 
tem. In  Illinois  there  exists  a  Provincial  Council  of  the 
three  dioceses  within  the  State,  and  in  New  York  there  is 


RITUALISM.  529 

a  Federate  Council  of  the  five  dioceses  within  the  State. 
As  yet  throughout  the  church  there  has  been  no  general 
movement  in  the  matter,  and  it  waits  for  its  development 
the  coming  of  future  necessity.^ 

Some  general  features  of  the  latest  development  of 
church  life  having  now  been  traced,  we  turn  our  attention 
to  some  special  facts  which  give  character  and  meaning 
to  this  period  of  the  church's  history. 

One  of  the  inevitable  struggles  of  the  church  was  to  ad- 
just itself  to  the  new  development  of  ritualism,  which  may 
perhaps  be  defined  as  the  effort  to  symbolize  in  worship, 
by  a  return  to  pre-Reformation  usages,  the  doctrinal  sys- 
tem of  the  extreme  Anglo- Catholic  school.  The  whole 
legislative  action  in  this  respect  has  been  derided  as  an  un- 
dignified wrangle  over  church  millinery.  That  is  a  very 
inadequate  conception  of  the  controversy.  Neither  side 
looked  upon  it  from  so  frivolous  a  point  of  view.  Those 
who  claimed  the  right  to  hold  the  doctrinal  opinions  of 
this  school  claimed  the  right  to  express  and  teach  them 
by  ritual  action.  They  justified  their  vestments  and  cere- 
monies, hitherto  unknown  in  the  church  in  America,  either 
by  the  usage  arising  in  the  English  Church  from  the  con- 
struction there  of  the  Ornaments  Rubric  (though  its  force 
and  obligation  were  then  the  subject  of  controversy  and 
litigation),  or  by  the  lack  of  legislation  in  the  canons  and 
rubrics  of  the  church  in  the  United  States,  which  had  never 
sanctioned  the  Ornaments  Rubric. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  were  opposed  to  this  in- 

1  Perhaps  the  most  prominent  and  persistent  advocate  of  the  division  of  dio- 
ceses and  of  the  provincial  system  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Henry  Hopkins,  Jr., 
son  of  Bishop  Hopkins,  of  Vermont.  He  was  the  wittiest  and  most  pungent 
controversial  writer  the  church  has  produced.  His  literary  talents  were  more 
brilliant  than  his  father's.  His  chief  literary  work,  his  father's  "  Life,"  would 
be  simply  beautiful  as  an  instance  of  filial  devotion  if  it  were  not  so  jubilantly 
polemic  and  exultantly  partisan  as  to  seriously  lessen  its  value  as  a  contribu- 
tion to  the  history  of  the  time. 


530  PROrESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

dividual  action  of  members  of  a  separate  school  urged  that 
an  opinion  permitted  to  be  held  /;/  the  church  was  not  to 
be  construed  as  the  doctrine  of  the  church,  and  that  the  new 
ceremonies,  meant  to  teach  it,  were  so  indistinguishable 
from  the  ceremonial  which  expressed  the  tenets  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  (which  this  church  had,  in  common  with 
its  English  mother,  rejected  as  errors),  that  to  permit  them 
was  dangerous.  They  urged,  moreover,  that  it  was  likely 
to  hopelessly  destroy  both  the  moderation  and  the  uni- 
formity in  worship  which  had  been  so  characteristic  of  the 
connnunion. 

The  ritualistic  controversy  is  therefore  not  to  be 
described  as  a  childish  contention  on  either  hand  about 
matters  in  themselves  insignificant;  nor  is  the  movement 
to  be  confounded  with  that  growth  in  esthetic  culture  so 
characteristic  of  this  time  in  all  departments  of  life,  and  by 
which  both  the  structures  and  the  services  of  the  church 
have  so  greatly  benefited.  Every  school  of  thought  within 
the  church,  as  well  as  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  with- 
out, have  felt  that  influence.  High-churchmen  led  the 
way,  but  Low-churchmen  followed  quickly  after,  until  all 
the  features  of  English  cathedral  worship,  of  choral  service 
and  vested  choristers,  as  well  as  of  pictures  upon  the  walls 
and  stalls  and  lecterns  in  the  chancel  and  crosses  on  the 
spire  or  over  the  holy  table,  have  ceased  to  be  indicative  of 
party  position.  The  ceremonial  brought  in  question  by 
the  ritualistic  controversy  was  not  simply  esthetic,  but 
symbolic  of  a  special  school  of  doctrine,  which  had  never 
before  sought  to  so  express  itself  since  the  Reformation. 

It  was  perhaps  a  little  book  entitled  "  The  Law  of  Ritu- 
alism," by  the  then  presiding  bishop,  issued  in  1866,  which 
called  the  attention  of  bishops  and  churchmen  generally  to 
the  subject.  In  twenty  years,  Bishop  Hopkins,  who  had 
been  at  first  much  disturbed  by  what  he  termed  the  novel- 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  RITUAL.  531 

ties  of  the  Oxford  Movement,  had  come  to  be  undisturbed 
by  the  .ceremonial  which  expressed  them,  and  even  ap- 
peared as  its  advocate  and  defender.  Early  in  1867 
twenty-four  bishops  issued  a  declaration  condemnatory  of 
ritualism,  in  which  they  declared  that  "  no  Prayer-book  of 
the  Church  of  England  in  the  reign  of  whatever  sovereign 
set  forth,  and  no  law  of  the  Church  of  England,  have  any 
force  of  law  in  this  church  such  as  can  be  justly  cited 
in  defense  of  any  departure  from  the  express  law  of  this 
church."  In  fine,  this  declaration  claimed  the  right  of 
"  this  national  church  "  to  prescribe  its  own  ritual,  and 
condemned  such  usages  as  were  especially  attributed  to  the 
ritualistic  party.  This  started  the  controversy.  It  is  too 
recent,  and  the  records  of  it  are  too  accessible,  to  render  a 
complete  account  of  it  advisable.  The  flood  of  debate, 
moreover,  renders  such  an  account  impossible.  In  the 
General  Convention  of  1868  the  subject  was  earnestly 
considered,  but  after  many  resolutions  and  counter-reso- 
lutions the  only  result  was  the  consent  of  the  House  of 
Bishops,  in  response  to  a  request  of  the  House  of  Depu- 
ties, to  "appoint  a  committee  to  consider  whether  any  ad- 
ditional provision  for  uniformity,  by  canon  or  otherwise, 
is  practicable  and  expedient,  and  to.  report  to  the  next 
General   Convention." 

Bishop  Hopkins  had  died  in  January  before  this  Conven- 
tion assembled,  and  Bishop  Smith,  of  Kentucky,  was  now 
presiding  bishop.  He  appointed  on  this  committee  Bishops 
Lee  of  Delaware,  Williams  of  Connecticut,  Odenheimer  of 
New  Jersey,  Clark  of  Rhode  Island,  and  Kerfoot  of  Pitts- 
burg. This  committee  reported  to  the  next  General 
Convention,  held  in  Baltimore,  1871.  In  this  report  they 
declared  their  conviction  that  some  action  of  the  General 
Convention  on  the  subject  was  desirable,  if  not  absolutely 
demanded.    They  asked  that  such,  action  should  be  in  the 


532  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

form  of  a  canon,  and  recommended  that  it  should  prohibit 
eleven  specified  things,  among  which  were  the  use  of  in- 
cense and  of  the  crucifix,  lights  on  or  about  the  holy  table, 
and  certain  actions  of  the  officiating  minister,  such  as  the 
elevation  of  the  consecrated  elements,  prostrations,  cross- 
ings, solitary  communion  of  the  priest,  etc.  They  recom- 
mended another  canon  on  Vestments,  restricting  the  bishops 
to  the  episcopal  habit  heretofore  in  use,  and  the  clergy  to 
a  white  surplice  and  black  gown,  a  white  or  black  stole, 
white  bands,  and  a  black  cassock.  They  also  reported  a 
resolution  that,"  the  House  of  Deputies  concurring,  a  joint 
committee  be  appointed,  to  consist  of  three  bishops,  three 
presbyters,  and  three  laymen,  with  directions  to  report  such 
canons  as  might  be  thought  desirable  to  this  Convention 
as  early  as  possible."  The  joint  committee  was  granted 
and  appointed,  and  reported  a  canon  on  Ritual,  in  which  it 
was  declared,  first,  that  "  this  church  recognizes  no  other 
law  of  ritual  than  such  as  it  shall  have  itself  accepted  or 
provided  "  ;  and  second,  that  "  the  provisions  for  ritual  in 
this  church  are  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  with  the 
offices  and  ordinal ;  the  canons  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  use  in  the  American  provinces  before  the  year  1789,  not 
subsequently  superseded ;  and  the  canonical  or  other  de- 
cisions of  this  church  in  its  Conventions  "  ;  and  "  referring 
to  the  ordinary  all  questions  arising  concerning  ritual  ob- 
servance." A  resolution  was  appended  asking  for  a  joint 
committee  to  report  to  the  next  General  Convention  on 
"  what  portions  of  the  English  canons  of  1603  were  in  use 
in  America  in  1 789,  and  how  far  they  may  have  been  mod- 
ified." 

Innumerable  amendments  were  offered  to  this  canon, 
and  on  the  closing  day  of  the  session,  before  any  definite 
action  was  taken  by  the  Lower  House,  the  bishops  sent  in 
a  canon  concerning  the  administration  of  the  holy  com- 


CANON  CONCERNING  RITUAL.  533 

munion,  forbidding  elevation  of  the  elements  and  any 
ceremony  not  prescribed  in  the  Order  for  the  Administra- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
The  canon  was  lost  by  non-concurrence  of  the  house.  Two 
resolutions  were,  however,  passed ;  the  first  condemning  all 
ceremonies  fitted  to  express  a  doctrine  foreign  to  that  set 
forth  in  the  authorized  standards  of  the  church,  and  the 
second,  declaring  the  counsel  of  the  bishops  as  sufficient 
to  suppress  all  irregularities. 

It  was  not  until  the  Convention  of  1874  that  a  canon  on 
Ritual  was  passed.  Then  by  an  overwhelming  majority 
the  present  Section  1 1  of  Canon  22  of  Title  i  was  adopted. 
This  canon  forbids  the  elevation  of  the  elements  in  the 
celebration  of  the  holy  communion  ;  any  acts  of  adoration 
toward  the  elements  ;  and  all  other  like  acts  not  authorized 
by  the  rubrics  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

The  whole  action,  protracted  as  it  was,  was  more  influ- 
ential through  the  expression  of  opinion  elicited  than  from 
the  legislation  enacted.  The  constitutionality  of  the  canon 
has  been  disputed  and  practically  disallowed  by  those  whose 
practices  it  forbids,  and  those  who  desired  legislation  at  all 
desired  more  than  they  got.  By  their  messages  and  pro- 
posed measures  the  House  of  Bishops  showed  their  general 
disapproval  of  the  movement,  and  the  House  of  Deputies 
their  disinclination  to  minute  legislation  concerning  it.  Its 
clerical  and  lay  advocates  were  backed  by  many  who  dis- 
approved it,  but  who  wished  to  make  the  church  compre- 
hensive of  all  types  of  churchmanship.  The  canon  so  fully 
approved  has  stood  chiefly  as  a  formal  protest  against  the 
central  error  alleged  to  be  involved  in  the  rituahstic  de- 
velopment. 

Whether  it  was  owing  to  the  very  full  opportunity  for 
the  church  to  give  its  utterance  on  the  subject  in  these 
General  Conventions,  or  to  other  causes,  the  excitement 


534  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

concerning  ritualism  from  this  time  gradually  declined.  In 
its  extreme  form  it  is  rare  in  the  church,  and  its  advocates, 
if  intense,  are  not  numerous. 

The  discussion  concerning  ritualism  in  187 1  was  espe- 
cially animated.  It  brought  into  prominence  as  its  most 
eloquent  advocate  Dr.  James  De  Koven,  whose  speeches 
did  as  much  as  anything  to  defeat  more  definite  legislation. 
He  was  a  man  of  singular  charm  and  of  magnetic  influence, 
which  arose  from  a  rare  combination  in  him  of  earnest  en- 
thusiasm, genuine  conviction,  and  spiritual  refinement.  His 
ardent  followers  have  attributed  to  him  more  intellectual 
power  than  his  short  life  made  apparent,  but  his  gifts  and 
his  graces  alike  combined  to  place  him  in  the  forefront  of 
the  Anglo- Catholic  party. 

This  Convention  of  1871  saw  the  issue  of  a  declaration 
of  the  House  of  Bishops  which  did  more  to  quiet  the  ap- 
prehension of  the  Evangelicals  than  any  legislative  en- 
actment could  possibly  have  done.  There  was  much 
excitement  at  the  time  concerning  the  word  "regenerate  " 
in  the  Baptismal  Office,  consequent  on  the  trial  and  suspen- 
sion, six  months  before,  of  a  Chicago  rector  for  refusing  to 
use  it.  The  bishops  sitting  in  council  issued  the  declaration 
that  in  their  opinion  "  the  word  '  regenerate '  is  not  there 
so  used  as  to  determine  that  a  moral  change  in  the  subject 
of  baptism  is  wrought  by  the  sacrament."  Forty-eight 
bishops  were  present  and  signed  the  declaration.  However 
unnecessary  such  a  statement  may  have  been  for  a  trained 
theologian,  and  whatever  the  force  of  this  utterance  as  a 
doctrinal  definition,  it  is  from  the  date  of  its  promulgation 
that  we  begin  to  see  the  decline  of  party  spirit  in  the  church, 
and  a  greater  union  in  practical  effort  among  the  members 
of  its  various  schools. 

It  was  in  the  interval  between  the  General  Conventions 
of  1 87 1  and  1874  that  the  useless  schism  of  the  Reformed 


REFORMED  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.  535 

Episcopal  Church  took  place.  It  was  precipitated,  on  the 
part  of  Bishop  Cummins,  the  chief  mover  in  it  and  an  indis- 
pensable elemept  if  it  were  to  be  an  Episcopal  communion, 
by  certain  criticisms  in  the  public  press.  He  had  participated 
with  Dr.  Payne  Smith,  Dean  of  Canterbury,  in  a  celebra- 
tion of  the  holy  communion  in  a  Presbyterian  church,  held 
in  connection  with  a  world-gathering  of  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  in  New  York,  October,  1873.  Bishop  Cummins 
was  assistant  Bishop  of  Kentucky,  an  eloquent  preacher 
of  Evangelical  sentiments  and  strict  theological  convic- 
tions. He  had  previously  been  much  disturbed  by  the 
ritualistic  controversy,  and  seeing  that  proscriptive  legis- 
lation was  not  likely  to  equal  his  demands,  his  conscience 
was  stirred  at  the  thought  of  continuing  to  bear  rule  in  a 
church  where  what  he  esteemed  vital  errors  would  be 
permitted,  even  if  discountenanced.  The  act  of  joining  in 
the  Presbyterian  communion  service  was  sharply  criticised 
in  the  newspapers  by  Bishop  Tozer,  an  English  missionary 
bishop  who  was  retiring  from  Zanzibar,  and  who  was  in 
New  York  at  the  time.  His  denunciation,  which  did  not  dis- 
turb the  Anglican  dean,  proved  the  finishing-touch  to  the 
long-gathering  dissatisfaction  of  the  American  bishop.  A 
month  later,  on  November  10,  1873,  Bishop  Cummins  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  his  diocesan,  Bishop  Benjamin  B.  Smith, 
of  Kentucky,  who  was  also  presiding  bishop,  announcing 
his  "  purpose  of  transferring  his  work  and  office  to  another 
sphere."  After  expostulation  he  was  arraigned  for  trial, 
and  was  finally  deposed  from  his  office  and  ministry  by 
the.  presiding  bishop,  June  24,  1874.  This  sentence  was 
approved  and  ratified  by  the  House  of  Bishops  at  its  next 
session,  and  announced  in  a  solemn  service  to  the  church 
in  General  Convention  assembled  the  same  year,  October, 
1874.  In  the  meantime,  a  month  after  his  letter  of  renun- 
ciation of  his  ministry  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 


536  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

in  December,  1873,  Bishop  Cummins  had  met  with  seven 
clergymen  and  twenty  laymen  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
and  inaugurated  a  separate  ecclesiastical  organization. 
Bishop  Cummins  was  chosen  presiding  officer  of  the  new 
body,  and  he  proceeded  to  consecrate  the  deposed  pres- 
byter of  Chicago,  the  Rev.  C.  E.  Cheney,  D.D.,  who  was  by 
the  new  body  elected  bishop.  He  was  a  notable  accession 
by  reason  of  his  gifts  and  character  and  the  conspicuous 
position  he  had  obtained.  Could  the  strictness  of  the  letter 
have  been  less  rigidly  enforced  against  him  he  might  have 
been  spared  to  the  church,  and  the  Reformed  Episcopal 
Church  to  America,  for  he  was  the  most  influential  man 
who  joined  it.  A  few  earnest  souls  followed  him,  of  the 
type  which  is  intense  within  a  limited  horizon ;  whose 
conception  of  the  church  is  too  circumscribed  to  admit  of 
varied  apprehensions  of  doctrine,  and  who  fear  if  tares  and 
wheat  grow  together,  the  tares  will  assuredly  root  out  the 
wheat.  This  movement  drew  to  itself  but  few  of  the  promi- 
nent men  of  Evangelical  antecedents,  and  has  not  established 
itself  as  either  a  numerous  or  an  influential  ecclesiastical 
body.  All  the  views  for  which  its  protest  is  made  have  been 
and  may  be  held  within  the  communion  from  which  it 
parted.^  This  departure  may  have  awakened  in  the  old 
home  a  spirit  of  comprehension  too  slumberous  before ; 
a  return  would  keep  it  yet  more  wide  awake. 

When  the  controversy  over  ritualism  was  renewed  at 
the  General  Convention  of  1874  it  was  carried  on  with  less 
virulence.  Dr.  De  Koven  pleaded  against  repressive  legis- 
lation because  of  its  narrowing  eff"ect  upon  the  communion, 
and  it  was  in  this  spirit  that  the  Convention  contented  itself 
with  the  general  statements  of  its  canon.     The  temper  of 

1  H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.D.,  "The  Religious  Forces  of  the  United  States," 
in  "  American  Church  History  Series,"  vol.  i.,  p.  325,  "  Reformed  Episcopal 
Church." 


AMERICAN  CHURCH  CONGRESS.  537 

the  body  was  shown,  however,  in  its  refusal  to  confirm  the 
election  of  Dr.  G.  F.  Seymour  to  the  bishopric  of  Illinois,  on 
the  ground  that  he  was  an  active  member  of  the  advanced 
ritualistic  party.  This  charge  he  denied,  but  the  Conven-  ' 
tion  declined  to  assent  to  his  consecration.  In  the  calmer 
times  which  have  since  ensued  he  has  been  made  bishop 
of  the  diocese  of  Springfield. 

Just  before  the  General  Convention  met  in  New  York  in 
1874  the  first  meeting  of  the  American  Church  Congress 
was  held  in  the  same  city.  It  had,  of  course,  been  sug- 
gested by  the  English  Church  Congress,  and  the  plan 
originated  among  a  number  of  clergymen,  usually  styled 
Broad-churchmen,  who  were  advocates  of  the  comprehen- 
siveness of  the  church  and  of  intellectual  freedom  within  it. 
They  felt  that  the  time  had  come  for  a  free  expression  of 
opinion  by  all  classes  of  churchmen,  clerical  and  lay,  on 
topics  of  common  Christian  and  church  interest,  unham- 
pered by  prospective  legislation  or  representative  respon- 
sibility. They  believed  that  if  honest  men  of  differing 
convictions  could  thus  meet  on  a  common  platform,  state 
and  advocate  their  convictions,  and  learn  the  rationale  of 
their  difTerences,  the  result  would  be  a  decline  of  party  spirit, 
an  increase  of  ecclesiastical  comity,  and  an  awakening  of 
intellectual  and  spiritual  life.  At  a  meeting  of  a  number  of 
clergymen  of  Boston  and  New  York  at  New  Haven  in  the 
spring  of  1874,  the  subject  was  broached.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Edwin  Harwood,  the  scholarly  rector  of  Trinity  Church, 
New  Haven,  who  had  recently  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
English  Church  Congress,  suggested  the  introduction  of  the 
same  thing  in  America.  The  subject  was  duly  discussed, 
and  finally  formulated  by  such  men  as  Bishop  Clark  of 
Rhode  Island,  Drs.  E.  A.  Washburn  and  John  Cotton  Smith 
of  New  York,  and  Phillips  Brooks  of  Boston.  Rev.  Dr. 
George  D.  Wildes  was  appointed  general  secretary.     Prepa- 


538  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

rations  were  made  to  hold  the  first  session  of  the  Congress 
in  New  York,  just  previous  to  the  assembling  of  the  Gen- 
eral Convention,  in  order  to  secure  a  full  and  represent- 
ative audience  for  the  inauguration  of  the  movement. 
The  appointment  of  this  time  caused  the  project  to  be 
misunderstood  by  the  Bishop  of  New  York,  who  had  been 
asked  to  preside,  and  he  opposed  the  holding  of  the  Con- 
gress, fearing  it  might  be  meant  to  influence  the  legislation 
of  the  coming  General  Convention.  Nothing  was  further 
from  the  purpose  of  the  originators  of  the  Congress,  and 
the  best  way  to  answer  such  suspicions  was  to  hold  the 
Congress  and  let  it  speak  for  itself.  It  was  accordingly 
held  with  great  success  in  Association  Hall,  and  largely 
attended,  though  many  bishops  and  delegates  withheld 
their  presence  out  of  deference  to  the  scruples  of  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese.  Bishop  Whipple  made  the  opening  address 
at  the  celebration  of  the  holy  communion  at  Calvary 
Church,  which  preceded  the  first  session,  and  Dr.  Alex- 
ander H.  Vinton,  of  Boston,  acted  as  president  of  the 
Congress.  Speakers  of  all  ecclesiastical  schools  took  part. 
The  boldness  of  utterance,  the  ability  of  the  discussions,  the 
courtesy  of  the  writers  and  speakers,  created  a  profound  im- 
pression, and  awakened  the  admiration  as  well  as  satisfied 
the  curiosity  of  the  audiences.  The  non-partisan  nature  of 
the  organization  was  conspicuously  evident  from  the  topics 
discussed,  the  speakers  who  took  part,  and  the  tone  of  the 
debates.  It  was  the  successful  inauguration  of  an  institu- 
tion which  has  since  done  more  to  mitigate  the  bitterness 
of  party  spirit  than  any  series  of  publications  or  resolutions 
of  ecclesiastical  bodies  could  possibly  have  accomplished. 
It  has  made  men  and  parties  understand  one  another,  by 
bringing  them  face  to  face  in  absolute  freedom  of  discus- 
sion. Its  direction  has  been  eminently  fair;  no  school  or 
extremest  section  of  a  school  has  been  overlooked  in  the 


BROAD-CHURCHMEN.  539 

selection  of  its  writers  and  speakers.  If  some  have  kept 
aloof  from  it,  it  has  not  been  for  lack  of  invitation  to  attend. 
The  late  Bishop  of  New  York,  notwithstanding  his  first 
opposition,  at  a  later  period  welcomed  it  to  his  diocese  and 
presided  at  its  meetings.  Those  only  dislike  it  who  distrust 
the  effects  of  free  discussion.  They  do  not  constitute  a 
majority  of  any  party  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
The  class  of  churchmen  among  whom  the  Congress  took 
its  rise  came  into  notice  gradually  and  as  individuals  rather 
than  as  a  school.  Though  styled  the  Broad-church  party, 
from  the  nature  of  their  position  there  can  be  no  binding 
party  organization  among  them,  for  they  emphasize  in- 
dividual freedom  of  both  thought  and  action,  and  stand 
for  the  constitutional  rights  of  loyal  churchmen  of  every 
school.  Their  symbol  is  rather  the  leaven  which  influences 
and  raises  the  mass  wherein  it  is  set,  without  taking  evi- 
dent form  for  itself,  than  the  seed  which  is  reproduced  and 
multiplied  in  definite  and  enlarged  organizations.  They 
are  the  representatives  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  of  the 
school  in  England  identified  with  the  names  of  Arnold  of 
Rugby  and  Robertson  of  Brighton,  with  the  brothers  Hare, 
and  with  Maurice  and  Stanley  and  Temple.  They  vary  in 
churchmanship,  in  theological  opinions,  in  ritual  manners. 
Their  bond  of  union  lies  rather  in  their  method  of  approach- 
ing questions  than  in  definite  conclusions  concerning  them. 
They  are  the  apostles  of  the  Spirit.  In  answer  to  charges 
of  vagueness  and  indifference  to  positive  results  which  have 
been  brought  against  them,  they  claim  that  their  breadth 
is  not  that  of  the  aeronaut  who,  drifting  among  the  clouds, 
sees  everything  and  distinguishes  nothing,  but  is  that  of 
the  astronomer  who  from  a  firm  position  broadly  scans  the 
heavens,  and  learns  of  a  greatness  which,  if  it  dwarf  the 
planet  whereon  he  stands,  yet  glorifies  it  by  making  it  part 
of  a  universe.     Many  of  this  school  are  strong  churchmen, 


540  rROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

holding"  to  the  value  of  the  historic  order  of  the  church  as 
a  bulwark  against  the  distractions  of  denominationalism, 
and  as  a  witness  to  the  continuity  of  the  Christian  faith, 
whose  legitimate  outcome  is  growth.  They  regard  the 
church  of  this  century,  however,  as  being  as  truly  under 
the  guidance  and  blessed  by  the  presence  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  as  the  church  at  any  earlier  period  of  its  history. 
They  regard  it  not  chiefly  as  a  past  tradition,  but  as  a 
present  reality  set  for  understanding  the  mind  of  the 
Master  and  applying  his  gospel  to  the  wants  of  men  to- 
day. The  school  thus  believes  in  progress  through  its 
belief  in  the  living  presence  of  God  by  his  Spirit.  It 
recognizes  that  the  same  Spirit  may  be  manifest  in  diverse 
operations,  and  its  idea  of  unity  is  not,  therefore,  uniform- 
ity. It  holds  that  the  duty  of  thinking  has  not  been 
relegated  to  any  one  age,  but  that  the  church's  past  ex- 
perience has  prepared  it  for  fuller  disclosures  and  ampler 
statements  of  the  "faith  once  delivered."  To  it  theology 
is  not  simply  an  archaeological  research.  It  is  hospitable 
to  advance  in  thought,  in  criticism,  in  modes  of  worship 
and  action.  Reality  rather  than  antiquity  is  its  watch- 
word. Reality  tested  by  antiquity,  or  by  survival  through 
fitness  from  past  ages,  it  honors  in  the  creeds,  in  the  epis- 
copate, in  the  essential  forms  of  the  liturgy,  which  live  on 
by  their  inherent  power  and  are  as  vital  tp-day  as  afore- 
time. But  age  with  these  is  not  equivalent  to  reality,  and 
old  customs  would  not  be  regarded  as  binding,  even  if 
once  salutary,  if  the  conditions  out  of  which  they  arose 
have  been  changed.  Broad-churchmen  hold  strongly  to 
the  creeds,  but  look  more  doubtfully  on  articles  and  con- 
fessions, save  as  the  guides  of  a  past  experience  to  a  fuller 
attainment.  They  venerate  the  sacraments  as  divine  wit- 
nesses of  a  grace  greater  than  themselves,  to  which  they 
testify  with  authority,  and  administer,  but  do  not  confine. 


BKOAD-CIIURCHMANSHir.  5  4 1 

The  authority  of  the  church  hes  to  them  chiefly  in  the 
reasonableness  of  its  decrees,  and  the  authority  of  the 
Bible  in  its  divine  and  spiritual  message  to  the  soul  and 
the  conscience,  wholly  unimpaired  by  any  crudity  of  style 
or  inexactness  of  popular  scientific  illustration  it  may 
exhibit.  They  regard  inspiration  as  of  the  spirit,  not  of 
the  letter,  and  hold  that  the  supernatural  is  not  to  be 
construed  as  the  unnatural. 

This  school,  therefore,  concerns  itself  much  with  the 
kingdom  of  righteousness  on  earth,  and  is  less  dogmatic 
concerning  the  features  of  the  spiritual  world  beyond.  It 
is  interested  in  applying  the  principles  of  Christ's  teaching, 
and  the  truth  of  God,  revealed  in  his  incarnation  and  pas- 
sion and  resurrection,  to  the  present  actual  needs  of  men 
and  society,  and  is  largely  humanitarian  in  its  conception 
of  applied  Christianity. 

This  brief  sketch  of  the  Broad-church  school  may  serve 
to  show  its  trend.  It  is  not  eminently  dogmatic,  but  tends 
to  discriminate  essential  Christianity  from  theological  spec- 
ulation, and  to  identify  its  essence  with  a  living  relation  of 
the  soul  and  of  society  to  Christ.  It  has  had  wide  influ- 
ence over  both  thinking  and  practical  men.  It  has  drawn 
into  the  church  many  whom  ecclesiasticism  repels,  and 
whom  the  subjective  individualism  of  the  Evangelical 
system  does  not  satisfy.  It,  of  course,  embraces  men  very 
wide  asunder  in  their  conclusions,  and  its  coherence  lies 
solely  in  its  spirit.  To  exist  as  an  influence  is  its  end  and 
aim.  That  end  is  to  "  live  in  the  Spirit";  that  aim  is  to 
"walk  before  God  in  the  land  of  the  living."  Of  the 
exponents  of  this  school,  the  most  eminent  have  been 
Dr.  Washburn,  of  New  York,  and  Phillips  Brooks,  Bishop 
of  Massachusetts.  The  lives  of  both  were  too  influential 
to  be  indicated  in  a  brief  sketch,  yet  too  significant  to  be 
passed  without  notice. 


542  PROl'ESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

Edward  Abiel  Washburn  was  drawn  out  of  the  Con- 
gregationalism in  which  he  was  reared  into  the  Episcopal 
Church  through  the  attraction  of  its  historic  and  institu- 
tional character.  He  used  to  speak  of  himself  as  a  philo- 
sophical High-churchman,  because  he  held  to  the  value  of 
the  historic  continuity  and  organic  structure  of  the  church 
on  philosophical  rather  than  on  dogmatic  grounds ;  for  the 
sake  of  their  reasonableness  rather  than  because  of  conciliar 
or  traditional  authority.  According  to  his  conception  the 
church  could  not  rightly  exist  as  a  congeries  of  atomic 
congregations,  nor  even  as  a  rivalry  of  mutually  exclusive 
parties  striving  forpredominance  within  the  selfsame  house- 
hold. It  must  stand  as  an  organism  coextensive  with  the 
boundaries  of  the  faith,  with  equal  constitutional  rights 
guaranteed  to  all  loyal  souls  therein.  The  idea  of  com- 
prehensiveness thus  detached  him  from  denominationalism 
and  attracted  him  to  the  church,  which  he  regarded  as  a 
realm  of  law  insuring  a  reign  of  liberty.  Its  historic  char- 
acter, its  ancient  landmarks,  its  rich  heritage  of  liturgical 
treasures,  were  especially  dear  to  him ;  for  he  was  an  ac- 
curate scholar,  profoundly  versed  in  history  and  philosophy 
and  the  literature  of  many  lands.  He  was  a  keen  critic, 
and  possessed  an  epigrammatic  style  which  expressed  his 
convictions  with  crystal  clearness.  He  was  by  nature  a 
chivalrous  soul,  whose  presence  always  suggested  knightly 
prowess  and  the  distinction  of  a  high-bred  nature,  to 
which  what  was  mean,  false,  or  pretentious  was  disdain- 
fully repugnant.  He  was,  as  Dean  Stanley  wrote  of  him, 
of  "  that  small  transfigured  band  whom  the  world  cannot 
tame  :  the  band  of  Falkland,  Leighton,  Whichcote,  Arnold, 
Maurice."  He  stood  in  fullest  sympathy  with  the  catholic 
aims  of  his  friend,  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  in  all  matters  of  practi- 
cal benevolence  and  Christian  fellowship,  and  the  two  found 
an  intellectual  point  of  union  in  their  poetic  nature,  which 


EDWARD   A.    WASHBURN.  543 

was  marked  in  each.  But  Dr.  Washburn's  chief  interest 
lay  in  departments  unfamiHar  to  his  gifted  friend  :  in  those 
deeper  problems  of  philosophical  speculation  and  historical 
investigation  which  furnished  the  roots  of  his  theological 
method.  He  was  intent  on  the  discovery  of  the  rationale 
of  all  doctrines  and  institutions,  and  his  chief  mental  power 
lay  in  the  possession  of  a  keen  analysis  which  suffered  no 
subterfuge  to  escape  him,  and  which  brought  out  the 
lurking  error  or  the  hidden  truth  so  that  it  was  impossible 
to  mistake  its  identity.  Though  possessed  as  a  preacher 
of  a  rare  eloc^uence  of  both  style  and  expression,  his  appeal 
in  the  pulpit,  as  in  his  writings,  was  to  the  thoughtful  and 
studious  classes  rather  than  to  the  mass  of  men.  He  ap- 
proached men  through  their  intellect  too  predominantly  to 
greatly  attract  or  influence  the  general  crowd,  but  within 
the  sphere  he  had  deliberately  chosen  he  stood  supreme. 
Upon  vague  sentiment  or  misty  doubt  his  clear  intelli- 
gence shone  like  the  sun,  dispersing  the  vapors  and  re- 
vealing the  source  of  their  origin.  He  recognized  and 
welcomed  the  new  problems  in  thought  and  action  of  his 
time,  and  rejoiced  to  go  forth  to  meet  them  in  the  friendly 
spirit  which  greeted  them  as  signs  of  life,  better  far  than 
any  sultry  calm.  As  their  solvent  he  brought  forth  out 
of  his  treasury  things  new  and  old,  holding,  with  his  friend 
Stanley,  that  "  the  transitory  stands  still,  fades,  and  falls 
to  pieces ;  the  eternal  continues  by  changing  its  form  in 
accordance  with  the  movement  of  advancing  ages." 

As  a  philosophical  Christian  divine  and  as  a  liberal 
churchman,  not  less  but  more  devoted  by  reason  of 
his  liberality,  his  influence  on  his  fellow-clergy  and  the 
thoughtful  minds  of  the  community  was  marked  and  deep. 
And  all  that  influence  went  for  manliness  and  sincerity, 
for  generous  sympathy,  for  high  scholarship,  for  fearless 
investigation,      His  courage  was  boundless  because  of  his 


544  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

confidence  that  truth,  not  error,  is  the  strongest  thing  in 
the  church  as  in  the  world.  His  salutary  influence  on 
multitudes  of  the  younger  clergy  can  hardly  be  computed. 
As  we  turn  to  speak  of  Phillips  Brooks  we  meet  a  nature 
in  full  accord  with  Dr.  Washburn's  aim  and  tone,  but  with 
characteristics  widely  different.  He  grew  up  in  Boston, 
under  the  influence  of  his  rector.  Dr.  Alexander  H.  Vin- 
ton, "  whose  vigorous  mind  and  great  acquirements  and 
commanding  character  and  earnest  eloquence,"  to  quote 
Bishop  Brooks's  own  estimate  of  him,  "  made  him  a  most 
influential  power,  and  gave  a  noble  dignity  to  the  life  of 
the  church  in  Boston."  A  graduate  of  Harvard  and  a 
student  under  Dr.  Sparrow  at  Alexandria,  his  mind  never 
in  earlier  or  later  days  turned  fondly  toward  institutions, 
but  centered  itself  on  the  spiritual  and  moral  and  intellect- 
ual aspects  of  the  truth  itself.  High  as  was  his  intelligence 
and  wide  as  was  his  culture,  his  appeal  to  his  hearers  was 
not  chiefly  through  the  intellectual  gifts  which  separated 
them,  but  through  the  moral  and  spiritual  elements  they 
shared  in  common  and  which  made  them  all  akin.  At 
once  on  emerging  from  the  seminary  he  became  preeminent 
in  the  pulpit,  and  from  the  very  beginning  continued  till 
his  death  the  most  powerful  and  fascinating  and  uplifting 
preacher  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  has  ever  known. 
He  drew  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  and  women  in 
•vast  assemblies  about  him,  and  they  hung  breathless  on  his 
lips,  and  went  home  from  his  sermons  feeling  that  a  strong 
wind  of  God  had  blown  freshness  and  courage  and  hope  and 
aspiration  into  their  souls.  It  is  impossible  to  say  whose 
lives  he  touched  most  potently,  whether  the  students  of 
Harvard,  or  the  merchants  and  physicians  of  Philadelphia, 
or  the  judges,  statesmen,  and  scholars  of  Boston,  or  the 
clerks  and  seamstresses  and  artisans  everywhere.  No  one 
but  felt  and  responded  to  the  nobleness  of  his  nature  and 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


545 


the  majesty  of  his  spirit  as  he  stood  before  them  to  plead 
with  them,  as  the  children  of  God,  to  rise  to  the  height  of 
the  divine  possibilities  within  them,  and  walk  as  children 
of  the  light  and  of  the  day.  It  is  difficult,  if  not  impos- 
sible, to  analyze  his  power.  He  had  affluent  gifts,  but  it 
did  not  lie  in  them.  He  had  an  exquisite  diction  which 
sang  its  sentiment  into  the  soul,  and  a  wealth  of  illustration 
which  constituted  him  a  veritable  seer  to  whom  nature  laid 
bare  the  secrets  of  her  spiritual  suggestion,  together  with 
a  beautiful  simplicity  of  style  which  transforms  his  writ- 
ings into  literature.  Mentally  he  had  a  clear  perception  of 
the  fundamental  truths  of  God  and  man,  a  noble  philoso- 
phy of  life,  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  forces  moving  in 
society,  an  intense  appreciation  of  all  genuine  forms  of 
life.  But  it  was  the  mystic  touch  of  genius  which  took 
all  the  rich  endowments  of  his  nature,  and  all  the  acquire- 
ments of  his  scholarship,  and  all  his  varied  culture  and  ex- 
perience of  men,  and  from  out  them  evoked  a  power  of 
spiritual  sympathy  which  made  him  supreme  as  an  inspi- 
ration and  a  guide.  His  theology  was  Christology,  and 
his  religion  was  a  transcript  of  Dr.  Arnold's  expressive 
phrase :  "  There  is  one  name,  and  one  alone,  in  heaven 
and  earth  to  whom  we  can  surrender  our  whole  soul  and 
be  satisfied.  And  that  name  is  not  truth,  not  justice,  not 
benevolence ;  not  Christ's  mother,  nor  his  holiest  servants, 
nor  his  blessed  sacraments,  nor  his  very  mystical  body,  the 
church ;  but  himself  only,  who  died  for  us  and  rose  again, 
Jesus  Christ,  both  God  and  man."  The  divinity  and 
humanity  of  Christ  were  a  blended  light  which  enabled  him 
to  apprehend  the  significance  of  each,  and  to  comprehend 
their  unity  in  him.  The  realization  of  that  unity  in  man 
was  to  his  thought  the  end  and  aim  of  creation  and  re- 
demption, and  to  it  he  summoned  all  who  heard  him  by 
earnestly  eloquent  appeals  to  the  noblest  elements  within 


546  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

them.  He  depicted  Christian  character  in  the  greatness 
of  its  manliness,  and  in  contrast  showed  the  turpitude  of 
evil  in  its  littleness  as  well  as  in  its  guilt.  His  teaching 
was  thus  characterized  by  a  lofty  belief  in  man's  spiritual 
possibilities,  and  a  large  hope  for  man's  eternal  destinies. 
The  progressive  revelation  of  truth  and  morality  in  the 
Bible,  crowned  by  the  incarnation,  assured  him  of  its 
divine  spirit  and  origin,  which  no  criticism  of  the  letter 
could  affect.  And  the  church  of  Christ  was  to  him  the 
brotherhood  of  all  who  were  baptized  with  Christ's  spir- 
itual power,  and  followed  him  as  Master.  Neither  his 
theological  nor  his  ecclesiastical  views  were  conventional, 
and  this  gave  rise  to  misconception  and  misunderstanding 
of  him.  His  method  was  synthetic,  not  analytic,  and  this, 
too,  bewildered  the  conventional  mind,  which  could  not 
believe  that  the  skeleton  was  sound  or  entire  unless  it 
protruded  itself  through  the  tissues  of  the  ampler  life  with 
which  he  clothed  it.  Those  who  would  subject  a  poem  to 
the  tests  of  a  mathematical  problem  might  remain  doubtful 
of  his  essential  orthodoxy,  but  not  those  who  caught  the 
real  meaning  of  his  thought  and  were  responsive  to  the 
passionate  yearning  of  his  soul  to  make  God  and  Christ  and 
all  Christian  truth  a  reality  in  the  life  of  to-day,  and  not 
leave  it  chiefly  the  tradition  of  a  past  age  of  faith.  He 
never  uttered  a  sensational  sentence,  nor  one  that  had  not 
a  sensation  for  earnest  souls.  In  the  chiefest  English 
cathedrals,  as  in  the  least  parish  churches  of  his  diocese, 
he  was  a  living  oracle.  And  in  his  influence  on  his  own 
communion  and  community  he  stood  foremost  as  an  in- 
spiring presence,  who  made  life  nobler,  and  thought  and 
speech  worthier,  by  the  spirit  of  manliness  and  godliness 
with  which  he  suffused,  them. 

Of    other    men    of    influence    of    this    school    there    is 
no  space  to  speak ;   but  brief  mention  must  be  made  of 


PAROCHIAL  MISSIONS.  547 

John  Cotton  Smith,  rector  of  Ascension  Church,  New  York, 
who,  beginning  as  a  narrow  Evangelical,  expanded  into  a 
broad  Evangelical;  always  holding  to  the  subjective  the- 
ology he  loved,  yet  coming  to  comprehend  the  equal  force 
and  claim  of  other  schools  of  thought.  His  strong  native 
powers  were  enforced  by  learning,  and  his  philosophic 
cast  of  mind  lent  depth  to  his  conclusions.  His  pamphlet, 
"  The  Church's  Mission  of  Reconciliation,"  had  a  very 
wide  effect  in  calming  party  passion  and  making  his 
powers  known  and  his  influence  felt  generally  throughout 
the  church.  It  was  a  plea  for  unity  amid  diversity,  justi- 
fied by  an  exposition  of  the  peculiar  task  and  value  of  each 
school  in  its  testimony  to  some  special  element  of  the 
faith,  and  urged  in  the  interests  of  that  "  special  agency 
in  building  up  the  future  church  of  the  nation  "  which  he 
believed  Providence  laid  upon  his  own  communion. 

In  fine,  the  aim  of  this  school  has  lain  in  an  endeavor  to 
make  the  church  comprehensive,  and  in  claiming  free  scope 
for  the  development  of  its  power. 

Another  new  organization  of  this  period  has  likewise 
been  influential  in  the  cause  of  unity  within  the  church  on 
its  spiritual  side,  as  the  Church  Congress  has  been  on  its 
intellectual  side.  It  is  the  Parochial  Mission  Society,  which 
by  freer  methods  and  a  continuous  series  of  services  strives 
to  do  in  a  more  churchly  fashion  what  the  prayer-meet- 
ing and  religious  conference  aimed  to  do  of  old.  It  com- 
bines in  its  committees  and  its  workers  churchmen  of 
every  school  or  party,  who  are  earnestly  set  to  dissipate 
the  apathy  which  settles  on  the  routine  life  of  parishes, 
and  to  call  in  from  without  to  the  influences  of  the  gospel 
those  who  either  neglect  the  church  or  are  utterly  indiffer- 
ent or  hostile  to  it.  To  gather  in  the  wayfarer  and  stimu- 
late the  sluggish  Christian  is  the  work  of  the  Parochial 
Mission.     Its  services  are  differently  conducted  by  different 


548  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH,    [Chap.  xvii. 

types  of  men;  but  the  unity  of  aim  begets  unity  of  spirit, 
and  the  outcome  has  been  an  enlarged  charity  and  a  better 
mutual  appreciation  among  the  varied  schools  of  church- 
men. 

The  St.  Andrew's  Brotherhood  is  another  such  unifying 
organization,  which  touches  church  life  on  its  practical  side. 
This  society,  which,  with  simplest  rules  and  methods,  exists 
to  enlist  the  cooperation  of  young  men  in  church  work, 
such  as  bringing  men  to  church  and  welcoming  them  there, 
teaching  in  Sunday-schools  and  night-schools,  and  other 
like  avocations,  has  become  widespread  and  influential 
throughout  the  land.  The  Church  Congress  and  the 
Parochial  Mission  Society  both  had  their  prototypes  in 
England.  The  St.  Andrew's  Brotherhood  is  purely  Ameri- 
can. It  began  as  a  parochial  society  in  St.  James's  Church, 
Chicago,  to  meet  a  local  need,  under  the  inspiration  and 
suggestion  of  Mr.  James  Houghteling,  a  layman  of  the 
parish.  Originating  in  1886,  it  has  now  a  thousand  chap- 
ters and  a  membership  of  eleven  thousand  widely  scattered 
through  the  dioceses.  It  holds  its  conventions,  where  the 
members  gather  in  vast  numbers,  and  is  a  distinct  power 
in  consolidating  the  practical  forces  of  the  church,  and 
divesting  them  of  a  partisan  character.  The  Daughters  of 
the  King  is  a  society  for  girls,  of  the  same  essential  aim  and 
spirit,  though  it  is  by  no  means  so  large  an  organization. 
Church  clubs,  too,  have  numerously  sprung  into  being, 
which  have  the  opportunity  at  least  to  foster  unity  on  its 
social  side.  The  laymen  in  the  cities  are  enlisted  in  them, 
and  they  manifest  and  deepen  a  vigorous  Christian  vitality 
among  churchmen. 

Of  the  various  attempts  at  social  reform  which  have  com- 
bined churchmen  of  all  schools  in  equal  enthusiasm,  one  of 
the  chief  is  the  Church  Temperance  Society,  which  seeks  to 
diminish  and  destroy  drunkenness  by  the  combined  efl"ortsof 


CHURCH   TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY.  549 

all  sober  people.  It  admits,  therefore,  to  its  fellowship  both 
those  who  moderately  use  and  those  who  totally  abstain 
from  using  spirituous  drinks.  It  was  established  in  1881, 
and  -under  its  able  president,  Mr.  Robert  Graham,  has 
done  much  to  oppose  the  vice  so  fatal  to  domestic  peace 
and  personal  respectability  by  affecting  legislation  and  call- 
ing attention  to  the  problem  of  drinking-saloons  and  their 
distribution,  by  the  establishment  of  coffee-houses  and 
lunch-wagons  where  the  temptation  to  dram-drinking  is  ab- 
sent, by  lectures  and  mass-meetings,  and  especially  by  the 
establishment  in  churches  of  corps  of  Knights  of  Temper- 
ance, with  drill  and  uniform,  among  the  young,  pledged  to 
sobriety  and  purity  and  reverent  speech.  The  reasonable- 
ness of  its  basis,  whereon  all  the  friends  of  sobriety  may 
stand,  frees  it  from  the  taint  of  an  uncharitable  fanaticism, 
and  promises  for  it  a  sphere  of  usefulness  akin  to  that  of 
the  English  Church  Temperance  Society,  whose  success 
suggested  the  adoption  of  its  methods  in  America. 

The  American  Church  Building  Fund  Commission  is 
another  practical  combination  of  all  sorts  of  churchmen  in 
needed  work.  Founded  in  1880  by  the  General  Conven- 
tion, it  aims  to  raise  a  large  fund  by  annual  offerings  from 
congregations  and  by  individual  gifts ;  portions  of  the 
principal  to  be  loaned,  and  of  the  interest  to  be  given,  for 
church  building  wherever  needed. 

Amid  all  these  manifestations  of  a  broader  and  nobler 
conception  of  the  church's  task,  the  individual  churches 
themselves,  whether  the  seats  are  rented  and  appropriated 
or  whether  they  are  indiscriminately  free,  have  in  large 
measure  ceased  to  be  mere  places  of  worship  for  the  little 
groups  who  have  combined  to  build  them,  preserving 
carefully  the  chartered  privileges  of  their  parishioners,  and 
have  aspired  to  become  religious  homes  for  the  community 
and  centers  of  religious  work  for  the  help  of  all  kinds  of 


550  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

suffering  and  need.  In  the  larger  cities  the  mission  chapels 
and  parish  houses  of  the  self-supporting  churches  offer  the 
opportunity  for  worship  and  helpful  sympathy  in  the  very 
midst  of  the  poorer  population ;  and  the  general  City  Mis- 
sion, in  the  city  of  New  York,  carries  the  ministrations 
of  the  gospel,  through  its  chaplains,  to  all  the  city  institu- 
tions, to  every  prison  and  hospital  and  almshouse  supported 
by  the  municipality.^ 

A  larger  conception  of  church  catholicity  has  at  times 
seemed  to  some  to  demand  a  change  of  name  for  the  ec- 
clesiastical organization  which  has  so  developed  itself.  In 
the  General  Convention  of  1877,  held  in  Boston,  the  sub- 
ject was  broached  by  the  presentation  of  some  resolutions 
of  the  diocese  of  Wisconsin,  asking  among  other  things 
for  a  change  in  the  legal  title  of  the  church.  The  deputy 
from  Wisconsin  who  introduced  the  resolution,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  De  Koven,  was  its  chief  clerical  advocate,  and  the 
Hon.  S.  Corning  Judd,  of  Illinois,  its  chief  lay  supporter. 
The  older  and  larger  dioceses  did  not  favor  it.  The  Hon. 
Hamilton  Fish,  of  New  York,  vigorously  opposed  and 
denounced  it.  The  final  vote  on  the  change  of  name  was 
on  the  resolution  reported  by  the  committee  to  whom  the 
Wisconsin  resolution  had  been  referred,  viz.,  "Resolved, 
That  no  change  be  made  in  the  name  of  this  church,  as 
used  in  the  constitution."  An  overwhelming  majority  of 
dioceses  sustained  the  resolution,  only  one  lay  delegate 
from  Alabama  and  two  clerical  delegates  from  Wisconsin 
voting  in  the  negative.  In  connection  with  this  subject 
an  occurrence  in  the  General  Convention  of  1886  has  been 
cited  as  indicating  a  change  of  sentiment  -  in  regard  to  it. 

1  The  beautiful  Chapel  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  built  l)y  Mr.  George  Bliss, 
of  New  York  City,  at  a  cost  of  seventy  thousand  dollars,  on  Blackwell's  Island, 
for  the  use  of  the  inmates  of  the  city  almshouse,  is  a  striking  illustration  of 
the  awakened  spirit  of  philanthropy  in  the  church  to-day. 

2  See  Morehouse,  "  Some  American  Churchmen,"  p.  217. 


LAMBETH  CONFERENCES.  55  I 

Such  was  not  its  significance.  It  was  proposed,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  enrichment  of  the  Prayer-book  then  under 
consideration,  that  the  name  of  the  church  should  be,  not 
changed,  but  omitted  from  the  title  of  the  Prayer-book. 
Many  of  the  strongest  opponents  of  the  change  of  name 
were  in  favor  of  this  proposition,  believing  it  would  tend  to 
make  the  Prayer-book  more  widely  acceptable  without  the 
church,  and  insure  its  use  in  congregations  not  Episcopal. 
There  was  a  clerical  majority  of  nearly  two  thirds  in  its 
favor,  and  it  was  defeated  by  the  non-concurrence  of  the 
laity,  largely  on  the  ground  that  such  omission  in  the  title 
of  the  Prayer-book  would  be  construed  as  a  desire  to 
change  the  church's  name.  Whenever  the  subject  of  the 
change  of  name  has  come  distinctly  to  the  front  it  has  been 
emphatically  disallowed. 

Before  considering  the  two  important  actions  of  the 
church  at  home  which  will  conclude  this  record,  it  is  well 
to  give  a  brief  glance  at  its  relations  abroad.  These  have 
been  chiefly  confined  to  the  participation  of  the  American 
bishops. in  the  three  conferences  of  the  whole  Anglican 
episcopate,  held  by  invitation  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury at  Lambeth  Palace.  At  the  first,  held  in  1867,  the 
opening  sermon  was  preached  by  Bishop  Whitehouse,  of 
Illinois,  in  consequence  of  an  arrangement  with  the  Rt.  Rev. 
Dr.  Hopkins,  to  whom,  as  presiding  bishop,  the  appoint- 
ment had  been  referred,  in  recognition  of  the  church  in  the 
United  States.  Bishop  Hopkins  was,  however,  a  prominent 
and  conspicuous  member  of  the  conference;  and  Bishop 
Lee,  of  Delaware,  made  a  profound  impression  by  his 
learned  and  judicious  counsel,  which  caused  him  to  be 
especially  consulted  on  momentous  questions.  As  the 
utterances  of  these  conferences  are  of  no  binding  legal 
obligation,  their  efTect  has  been  chiefly  in  deepening  a 
sense  of  the  unity  of  aim  and  identity  of  life  between  the 


552  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

sister  churches  on  either  side  of  the  sea,  in  spite  of  the 
diversity  of  operations  to  which  their  separate  circum- 
stances call  them.  They  have  resulted  in  a  more  frequent 
interchange  of  pulpits  between  the  two  countries,  and  have 
developed  a  stronger  sense  of  brotherhood  without  entailing 
any  mischievous  results  of  legislative  alliance. 

The  two  most  marked  actions  of  the  church  of  the 
present  period  remain  to  be  noted :  the  enrichment  of  the 
Prayer-book  and  the  Declaration  Concerning  Unity.  They 
were  in  a  measure  synchronous,  the  Declaration  being 
issued  after  the  Prayer-book  revision  had  been  begun  and 
before  it  was  ended. 

In  the  matter  of  the  revision  of  the  Prayer-book,  the 
resolution  calling  for  the  joint  committee  to  consider 
the  question  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  William  R.  Hunt- 
ington, D.D.,  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  ninth  day  of  the 
session,  in  the  General  Convention  of  1880.  It  read  as 
follows :  ^'Resolved,  the  House  of  Bishops  concurring.  That 
a  joint  committee,  to  consist  of  seven  bishops,  seven  pres- 
byters, and  seven  laymen,  be  appointed  to  consider  and 
report  to  the  next  General  Convention  whether,  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  this  church  is  soon  to  enter  upon  the  second 
century  of  its  organized  existence  in  this  country,  the 
changed  conditions  of  the  national  life  do  not  demand 
certain  alterations  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  in  the 
direction  of  liturgical  enrichment  and  increased  flexibility 
of  use." 

The  vote  on  the  resolution  was  largely  in  its  favor,  as 
follows:  of  the  clergy,  forty-three  dioceses  represented, 
ayes  33,  nays  9,  divided  i  ;  of  the  laity,  thirty-five  dioceses 
represented,  ayes  20,  nays  1 1,  divided  4.  Under  this  reso- 
lution the  following  bishops  were  appointed  as  members  of 
the  joint  committee  :  Williams,  Lay,  Coxe,  Stevens,  Young, 
Doane,  and  Huntington;  and  the  following  presbyters  and 


PR  A  YER-BOOK  RE  1 7SI0N.  553 

laymen:  Huntington,  Dalrymple,  Goodwin,  Dix,  Harwood, 
Garrison,  Harison,  Fish,  Coppee,  ShefFey,  Wilder,  Andrews, 
Smith,  Burgwin. 

It  was  felt  at  the  outset  that  the  efficiency  of  the  com- 
mittee was  somewhat  handicapped  by  the  fact  that  the 
greater  number  of  those  appointed  to  represent  the  House 
of  Deputies  upon  it  were  men  who  had  not  voted  for  the 
resolution ;  but  this  fact  became  of  itself  an  argument  for 
revision  when,  at  the  Convention  held  in  Philadelphia  three 
years  later,  the  report  brought  in  by  the  joint  committee 
was  found  to  have  been  signed  by  all  the  members. 

The  report,  when  presented,  had  attached  to  it  a  sample 
Prayer-book  showing  how  the  changes  recommended, 
if  adopted,  would  appear.  This  was  known  as  the  Book 
Annexed,  and  in  connection  with  the  report  furnished  the 
subject-matter  for  an  animated  debate  covering  the  greater 
part  of  the  session  of  1883.  The  recommendations  of  the 
committee  were  grouped  and  classified  so  as  to  facilitate 
the  process  of  selection,  and  much  the  greater  portion  of 
what  had  been  recommended  by  the  committee  secured 
the  Convention's  approval.  No  sooner,  however,  had  this 
body  adjourned  than,  in  accordance  with  a  natural  law  of 
reaction,  an  attack  upon  the  revision  movement  was  begun 
all  along  the  line  ;  so  that  it  presently  looked  as  if  the  whole 
labor  of  the  committee  would  come  to  naught.  But  the 
violence  of  this  reaction  spent  itself  in  the  course  of  two 
years,  and  w^hen  the  time  had  come  for  the  Convention  to 
meet  again,  this  time  at  Chicago,  it  was  evident  that  a 
counter-reaction  in  favor  of  revision  had  begun.  Op- 
position, however,  was  still  strong  enough  to  enable  the 
opponents  of  the  movement  to  secure  the  rejection  of  a 
great  deal  that  had  been  accepted  at  Philadelphia.  A 
Sifting  Committee,  so  called,  was  appointed  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment upon  the  recommendations  agreed  to  in  Philadelphia, 


554  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

and  to  report  back  to  the  Convention  such  features  of  re- 
vision as  ought  in  its  judgment  to  receive  final  approval. 
As  a  result  of  this  procedure  certain  changes  were  then 
and  there  adopted  and  became  part  of  the  liturgical  law 
of  the  church ;  while  certain  others  received  preliminary 
approval  and  were  handed  on  to  the  next  Convention  for 
final  action. 

At  the  General  Convention  of  1889  the  final  results 
were  gathered  up,  and  a  committee  of  twenty-one  was 
appointed  to  prepare  and  present  to  the  Convention  of 
1892  a  standard  book.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that 
at  Chicago  the  Committee  on  Revision  was  reorganized 
and  its  number  reduced  to  fifteen.  On  the  reorganized 
committee  the  original  mover  of  the  resolution  for  revision 
declined  to  serve. 

At  the  General  Convention  of  1892,  at  Baltimore,  the 
committee  on  the  Standard  Prayer-book  presented  its  re- 
port, a  learned  and  exhaustive  document,  understood  to 
be  mainly  the  work  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hart.  Proof-sheets 
of  the  Standard  Book  were  at  the  same  time  presented,  a 
canon  was  passed  providing  that  henceforth  the  Standard 
should  be  a  single  volume  rather  than  an  edition,  as  here- 
tofore, and  the  committee  was  continued,  with  instructions 
to  provide  said  volume  and  to  turn  it  over  to  the  custodian 
with  the  least  possible  delay.  The  committee  was  also 
authorized  to  issue  replicas  of  the  Standard  for  the  use  of 
the  several  dioceses,  and  to  reimburse  itself  by  the  sale  of 
subscription  copies,  for  some  portion  of  the  expense  in- 
curred. Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Hart,  of  the  diocese  of  Con- 
necticut, who  had  rendered  much  able  service  to  the  cause 
of  revision,  was  appropriately  appointed  custodian. 

To  the  fostering  care  of  the  Presiding  Bishop,  the  Rt. 
Rev.  John  Williams,  and  of  the  Bishop  of  Albany,  the  Rt. 
Rev.  W.  C.  Doane,  the  whole  movement  for  revision  owed  a 


THE  MEMORIAL    VINDICATED.  555 

large  share  of  its  success,  but,  more  than  to  any  other,  to 
the  Rev.  William  R.  Huntington,  D.D.,  who  was  its  inspira- 
tion and  chief  guide,  without  whom  it  would  not  have  been 
started,  or,  if  started,  would  have  failed,  and  whose  able 
and  courteous  conduct  of  the  long  and  intricate  discussions 
in  the  House  of  Deputies  secured  to  him  the  recognition 
by  the  whole  church  of  a  master  of  debate. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  in  the  rubrical  relaxations  and 
liturgical  enrichments  of  the  present  book  how  fully  the 
demands  of  the  Memorial  Movement  of  1854  have  been 
met.^  In  his  letter  to  Bishop  Otey  concerning  "  What  the 
Memorialists  Want,"  in  relation  to  the  church  services, 
Dr.  Muhlenberg  had  specified  especially  these  things : 

1.  The  use  of  other  texts  of  Scripture  among  the  intro- 
ductory sentences. 

2.  That  the  minister  may  at  his  discretion  omit  the 
exhortation. 

3.  That  the  minister  may  at  his  discretion  omit  the 
General  Confession  and  Absolution  on  week-days,  except 
Fridays;  and  on  Sundays,  when  the  holy  communion  is 
administered,  may  begin  with  one  or  more  of  the  sentences 
of  Scripture,  or  with  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

4.  To  allow  the  use  of  some  twenty  or  thirty  psalms  or 
portions  of  psalms  instead  of  the  psalter  for  the  day. 

5.  To  allow  the  substitution  of  other  lessons  than  those 
appointed. 

6.  To  allow  the  substitution  of  certain  anthems  or  other 
portions  of  Scripture  for  the  present  canticles  of  Morning 
or  Evening  Prayer. 

7.  To  allow  on  certain  occasions  additional  prayers  or 
offices,  such  as  shall  be  prescribed  by  the  bishop. 

All  these  demands  have  been  more  than  conceded.  The 
enrichment  by  additional  material,  if  not  large,  has  been 

1  Muhlenberg,  "  Evangelical  Catholic  Papers,"  first  series,  p.  230. 


556  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

choice.  The  Magnificat  and  Nunc  Dimittis,  which  were 
contained  even  in  the  Proposed  Book  of  1785,  and  which 
should  never  have  been  lost,  have  been  restored,  and  an 
additional  feast-day,  in  the  festival  of  the  Transfiguration, 
has  been  added  to  the  calendar.  As  it  is  now  constituted 
the  American  Prayer  Book  is  perhaps  the  noblest  manual 
of  public  devotion  in  the  Christian  church. 

The  Convention  of  1892,  which  completed  the  revision 
of  the  Prayer-book,  adopted  also  a  Hymnal,  compiled  by  a 
committee  of  singular  culture  and  ability,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Bishop  W.  C.  Doane,  of  Albany,  who  both  by 
paternal  heritage  and  native  poetic  gifts  was  fitted  to  be 
its  ideal  chairman. 

Lacking  space  for  a  fuller  treatment  of  the  history  of 
the  Hymnal,  there  are  a  few  names  especially  which  must 
be  gratefully  associated  with  it.  Apart  from  Dr.  Muhlen- 
berg, whose  service  has  been  before  mentioned  in  this 
relation,  the  first  is  that  of  Bishop  George  Burgess,  of 
Maine,  who  was  one  of  the  best  literary  scholars  the 
church  has  ever  known,  and  who  brought  his  wide  culture 
and  distinct  poetical  talent  to  bear  upon  the  subject  between 
the  years  1857  and  1865.  His  influence  was  marked  and 
salutary.  Another  name  is  that  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  A.  Cleve- 
land Coxe,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Western  New  York,  a  co-laborer 
with  Bishop  Burgess,  and  a  poet  likewise,  who  by  his 
"  Christian  Ballads  "  has  set  the  church  bells  chiming  in 
many  a  household,  and  who  has  bestowed  a  goodly  heritage 
upon  the  church  in  his  own  noble  hymns,  which  at  times,  as 
in  that  on  the  church,  vibrate  with  a  lyric  ring  akin  to  Camp- 
bell's, and  again,  as  in  that  on  Christ's  humility,  recall  the 
meditative  sweetness  of  Keble.  With  these  two  poet  prel- 
ates. Bishop  Howe,  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  associated  his 
ample  learning  and  cultivated  taste  ;  and  in  this  last  Hym- 
nal, compiled  under  the  supervising  care  of  Bishop  Doane, 


DECLARATION  CONCERNING    UNITY.  557 

all  previous  efforts  have  found  their  fitting  culmination. 
As  regards  both  prayer  and  praise,  the  church  in  this  last 
decade  has  been  amply  endowed  for  a  reverent  and  glow- 
ing service  to  Almighty  God. 

It  was  during  the  movement  for  the  enrichment  and  re- 
vision of  the  Prayer-book  that,  at  the  General  Convention 
held  in  Chicago  in  1886,  the  House  of  Bishops  issued  their 
celebrated  Declaration  Concerning  Unity.  A  memorial 
on  the  subject  had  been  presented  to  them,  signed  by  more 
than  eleven  hundred  clergymen  and  over  three  thousand 
laymen.  A  committee  was,  in  consequence,  appointed  "  to 
consider  the  matter  of  the  reunion  of  Christendom."  It 
consisted  of  Bishops  Littlejohn  of  Long  Island,  Bedell  of 
Ohio,  Howe  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  McCoskry  of  Michi- 
gan, and  Galleher  of  Louisiana.  The  subject  was  not  in 
substance  a  new  one,  though  it  was  new  in  form.  In  i  785, 
Bishop  Seabury,  in  a  letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith, ^ 
had  indicated  as  the  fixed  and  settled  notes  of  the  church, 
of  universal  obhgation,  these  four:  government,  sacra- 
ments, faith,  and  doctrine.  If  doctrine  be  made  equivalent 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  source  and  standard  of  it, 
then  the  report  on  unity,  as  finally  shaped  by  the  Lam- 
beth Conference,  is  in  exact  accord  with  Bishop  Seabury. 
The  attention  of  the  committee  was  called  as  well  to  the 
much  more  recent  and  full  expression  of  the  same  essen- 
tial position  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  WilHam  R.  Huntington,  in  his 
"  Essay  toward  Unity,"  called  "  The  Ciiurch  Idea."  ^  The 
four  postulates  therein  laid  down  were  almost  literally 
adopted  by  the  committee  in  the  four  propositions  which 
constituted  the  sum  and  substance  of  its  report,  and  which 
are  commonly  known  as  the  Quadrilateral. 

1  See  Beardsley,  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Samuel  Scahury,  D.D.," 
p.  234. 

2  "  The  Church  Idea:  An  Essay  toward  Unity,"  p.  157  (E.  P.  Button  & 
Co.,  1870). 


558  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH.    [Chap.  xvii. 

■  Tliat  report,  after  referring  to  the  commission  in  1853, 
in  response  to  the  Memorial  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  and  the 
action  taken  by  the  bishops  in  council  in  1880,  proceeded 
to  make  the  following  Declaration  "  to  all  whom  it  may 
concern,  and  especially  to  our  fellow-Christians  of  the 
diflferent  communions  in  our  land  who,  in  their  several 
spheres,  have  contended  for  the  religion  of  Christ: 

"  I.  Our  earnest  desire  that  the  Saviour's  prayer  that 
we  all  may  be  one  may,  in  its  deepest  and  truest  sense,  be 
speedily  fulfilled; 

"  2.  That  we  believe  that  all  who  have  been  duly  baptized 
with  water  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  are  members  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  ; 

"  3.  That  in  all  things  of  human  ordering  or  human 
choice  relating  to  modes  of  worship  and  discipline,  or  to 
traditional  customs,  this  church  is  ready,  in  the  spirit  of 
love  and  humility,  to  forego  all  preferences  of  her  own ; 

"  4.  That  this  church  does  not  seek  to  absorb  other 
communions,  but  rather,  cooperating  with  them  on  the 
basis  of  a  common  faith  and  order,  to  discountenance 
schism,  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  body  of  Christ,  and  to 
promote  the  charity  which  is  the  chief  of  Christian  graces 
and  the  visible  manifestation  of  Christ  to  the  world. 

"  But  furthermore,  we  do  hereby  affirm  that  the  Chris- 
tian unity  now  so  earnestly  desired  by  the  memorialists 
can  be  restored  only  by  the  return  of  all  Christian  com- 
munions to  the  principles  of  unity  exemplified  by  the 
undivided  Catholic  Church  during  the  first  ages  of  its  exist- 
ence, which  principles  we  believe  to  be  the  substantial 
deposit  of  Christian  faith  and  order  committed  by  Christ 
and»his  apostles  to  the  church  unto  the  end  of  the  world, 
and  therefore  incapable  of  compromise  or  surrender  by 
those  who  have  been  ordained  to  be  its  stewards  and 
trustees  for  the  common  and  equal  benefit  of  all  men. 


THE   QUADRILATERAL.  559 

"  As  inherent  parts  of  this  sacred  deposit,  and  therefore 
as  essential  to  the  restoration  of  unity  among  the  divided 
branches  of  Christendom,  we  account  the  following,  to  wit  : 

"  I.  The  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, as  the  revealed  Word  of  God ; 

"  II.  The  Nicene  Creed,  as  the  sufficient  statement  of  the 
Christian  faith ; 

"  III.  The  two  sacraments,  baptism  and  the  Supper  of 
the  Lord,  ministered  with  unfailing  use  of  Christ's  words 
of  institution,  and  of  the  elements  ordained  by  him ; 

"  IV.  The  historic  episcopate,  locally  adapted  in  the  meth- 
ods of  its  administration  to  the  varying  needs  of  the  nations 
and  peoples  called  of  God  into  the  unity  of  his  church. 

"  Furthermore,  deeply  grieved  by  the  sad  divisions 
which  afflict  the  Christian  church  in  our  own  land,  we 
hereby  declare  our  desire  and  readiness,  so  soon  as  there 
shall  be  any  authorized  response  to  this  Declaration,  to 
enter  into  brotherly  conference  with  all  or  any  Christian 
bodies  seeking  the  restoration  of  the  organic  unity  of  the 
church,  with  a  view  to  the  earnest  study  of  the  conditions 
under  which  so  priceless  a  blessing  might  happily  be 
brought   to  pass." 

This  report  was  adopted  and  communicated  to  the 
House  of  Deputies,  who  subsequently  asked  again  for  the 
appointment  of  a  joint  commission  on  the  subject.  This 
action  was  finally  concurred  in,  and  it  was  made  the  prov- 
ince of  the  commission  to  communicate  to  the  organized 
Christian  bodies  of  the  country  the  Declaration  set  forth 
by  the  House  of  Bishops,  and  to  hold  themselves  ready  to 
enter  into  brotherly  conference  with  all  or  any  such  bodies 
seeking  the  restoration  of  the  organic  unity  of  the  church. 

One  remarkable  effect  of  this  Declaration  was  its  virtual 
adoption  and  promulgation  by  the  Lambeth  Conference 
of  1888.     By  the  bishops  of  the  whole  Anglican  commun- 


56o  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH,    [Chap.  xvii. 

ion  then  assembled  the  articles  here  promulgated  were 
amended  to  read  as  follows : 

"  {a)  The  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, as  '  containing  all  things  necessary  to  salvation,' 
and  as  being  the  rule  and  ultimate  standard  of  faith ; 

"  {b)  The  Apostles'  Creed,  as  the  baptismal  symbol ; 
and  the  Nicene  Creed,  as  the  sufficient  statement  of  the 
Christian  faith ; 

"  {c)  The  two  sacraments  ordained  by  Christ  himself, 
baptism  and  the  Supper  of  the  Lord,  ministered  with  un- 
failing use  of  Christ's  words  of  institution,  and  of  the  ele- 
ments ordained  by  him ; 

"  (</)  The  historic  episcopate,  locally  adapted  in  the  meth- 
ods of  its  administration  to  the  varying  needs  of  the  nations 
and  peoples  called  of  God  into  the  unity  of  his  church." 

As  thus  amended  the  articles  were  accepted  and  adopted 
by  the  House  of  Deputies  at  the  General  Convention  of 
1892. 

With  this  action  of  the  General  Convention  we  may  fitly 
close  the  history  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  whose 
course  we  have  now  traced  from  its  sources  in  the  colonial 
churches  to  the  present  time.  In  the  consciousness  of  its 
fuller  life  that  church  seeks  to  secure  a  life  ampler  still  for 
the  church  of  Christ  in  America,  and  first  of  any  Christian 
body  since  the  Reformation  has  put  forth  a  proffer  of  Chris- 
tian unity.  If  the  church  shall  be  able  to  secure  constitu- 
tional provision  for  carrying  into  effect  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  Concerning  Unity,  it  will  have  gone  far  and 
done  much  toward  securing  a  united  church  in  the  United 
States,  and  will  have  illustrated  its  steadfast  adhesion  to 
the  honored  legend  which  all  praise  and  so  few  practice : 

IN   NECESSARHS   UNITAS,  IN   NON    NECESSARIIS   LIBERTAS,   IN    OMNIBUS 
CARITAS. 


APPENDIX 


CHRONOLOGICAL   TAISLE   OF   PRINCIPAL   EVENTS. 

1497-98.   First  voyages  of  the  Cabots. 

1579.    First  colonial  charter  to  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert. 

1587.   First  service  in  North  Carolina,  and  first  baptism. 

1602-03.    First  church  services  in  New  England. 

1607.   First  church  built  and  services  held  in  Virginia. 

1619.   First  legislative  meeting  in  Jamestown. 

1663.   First  church  services  in  New  York. 

1691.   Charter  obtained  for  William  and  Mary  College. 

1719.   First  church  Convention  at  Williamsburg,  Va. 

1722.   Conversion  of  Cutler  and  Johnson,  of  Yale. 

1735-36.  Visit  to  America  of  the  Wesleys  and  of  Whitefield. 

1783.  Church  Convention  at  Annapolis,  Md. 

1784.  Preliminary  meeting  of  clergy  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 
1784.   Consecration  of  Bishop  Seabury. 

1784.  Six  fundamental  constitutional  principles  set  forth. 

1785.  First  ordination  in  America  (Rev.  Philo  Shelton). 
1785.    First  General  Convention,  in  Philadelphia. 

1785.  The  Proposed  Book  set  forth. 

1786.  General  ecclesiastical  constitution  approved. 

1787.  Consecration  of  Bishops  White  and  Provoost. 

1789.  Constitution,  canons,  and  Prayer-book  adopted. 

1790.  Consecration  of  Bishop  Madison. 

1792.   First  consecration  of  a  bishoji  in  America  (Dr.  Claggett). 

1801.   The  Articles  of  Religion  established. 

1 82 1.   The  General  Theological  Seminary  founded. 

1829.    Mission  to  Greece  established. 

1835.   The  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society  founded. 

1835.   First  missionaries  go  to  China. 

1835.  First  domestic  missionary  bishops  elected. 

1835—36.    Missionaries  go  to  Africa. 

1845.    Sisterhoods  first  started. 

1853.  The  Memorial  Movement. 

1859.   First  missionaries  go  to  Japan. 

1859-92.    Revision  of  the  Hymnal. 

1861-65.    Civil  War  and  reunion. 

1873.   First  bishop  for  the  Indians  consecrated. 

561 


562 


APPENDIX. 


1874.  First  Church  Congress  held. 

1874.  First  bishop  for  Haiti  consecrated. 

1874.  Canon  concerning  ritual  adopted. 

1879.  Bishop  for  Mexico  consecrated. 

1880-92.    Revision  of  the  Prayer-book. 

1886.  Declaration  of  House  of  Bishops  on  Christian  Unity. 

1889.  Order  of  deaconesses  recognized  by  canon. 

1892.  Committee  on  Revision  of  Constitution  appointed. 

APPENDIX   A. 

CONCORDAT    OF    BISHOP    SEABURY    AND    THE    NONJURING   SCOTCH    PREL- 
ATES,  HIS    CONSECRATORS,    NOVEMBER    I5,    I784. 

///  the  name  of  the  Holy  and  Undivided  Trinity,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  one  God,  Blessed  for  ever.     Amen. 

The  wise  and  gracious  providence  of  this  merciful  God  having  put  it  into 
the  hearts  of  the  Christians  of  the  Episcopal  persuasion  in  Connecticut,  in 
North  America,  to  desire  that  the  blessings  of  a  free,  valid,  and  purely  eccle- 
siastical Episcopacy  might  be  communicated  to  them,  and  a  Church  regularly 
formed  in  that  part  of  the  western  world  upon  the  most  ancient  and  primitive 
model ;  and  application  having  been  made  for  this  purpose,  by  the  Reverend 
Dr.  Samuel  Seabury,  Presbyter  in  Connecticut,  to  the  Right  Reverend  the 
Bishops  of  the  Church  in  Scotland;  the  said  Bishops,  having  taken  this  pro- 
posal into  their  serious  consideration,  most  lieartily  concurred  to  promote  and 
encourage  the  same,  as  far  as  lay  in  their  power ;  and  accordingly  began  the 
pious  and  good  work  recommended  to  them,  by  complying  with  the  request 
of  the  clergy  in  Connecticut,  and  advancing  the  said  Dr.  Samuel  Seabury  to 
the  high  order  of  the  Episcopate ;  at  the  same  time  earnestly  praying  that 
this  work  of  the  Lord,  thus  happily  begun,  might  prosper  in  his  hands,  till 
it  should  please  the  great  and  glorious  Head  of  the  Church  to  increase  the 
numloer  of  Bishops  in  America,  and  send  forth  more  such  labourers  into  that 
part  of  His  harvest.  Animated  with  this  pious  hope,  and  earnestly  desirous 
to  establish  a  bond  of  peace  and  holy  communion  between  the  two  Churches, 
the  Bishops  of  the  Church  in  Scotland,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  having 
had  full  and  free  conference  with  Bishop  Seabury,  after  his  consecration  and 
advancement  as  aforesaid,  agreed  with  him  on  the  following  Articles,  which 
are  to  serve  as  a  Concordate,  or  bond  of  union,  between  the  Catholic  remain- 
der of  the  ancient  Church  of  Scotland  and  the  now  rising  Church  in  the  State 
of  Connecticut. 

Article  \.  They  agree  in  thankfully  receiving  and  humbly  and  heartily 
embracing  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  as  revealed  and  set  forth  in  the 
holy  Scriptures  ;  and  it  is  their  earnest  and  united  desire  to  maintain  the 
analogy  of  the  common  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,  and  happily  pre- 
served in  the  Church  of  Christ,  through  His  divine  power  and  protection, 
who  promised  that  the  gates  of  hell  should  never  prevail  against  it. 

Article  II.  They  agree  in  believing  this  Church  to  be  the  mystical 
Body  of  Christ,  of  which  He  alone  is  the  Head  and  supreme  Governor,  and 
that  under  Him  the  chief  ministers  or  managers  of  the  affairs  of  this  spiritual 
society  are  those  called  Bishops,  whose  exercise  of  their  sacred  office  being 
independent  of  all  lay  powers,  it  follows,  of  consequence,  that  their  spiritual 
authority  and  jurisdiction  cannot  be  affected  by  any  lay  deprivation. 


APPENDIX.  563 

Article  III.  They  agree  in  declaring  that  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Con- 
necticut is  to  be  in  full  communion  with  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Scotland ; 
it  being  their  sincere  resolution  to  put  matters  on  such  a  footing  as  that  the 
members  of  both  Churches  may  with  safety  and  freedom  communicate  with 
either,  when  their  occasions  call  them  from  the  one  country  to  the  other ; 
only  taking  care  when  in  Scotland  not  to  hold  communion  in  sacred  offices 
with  those  persons  who,  under  pretence  of  Ordination  by  an  English  or  Irish 
bishop,  do,  or  shall  take  upon  them  to  officiate  as  clergymen  in  any  part  of 
the  National  Church  of  Scotland,  and  whom  the  Scottish  Bishops  cannot  help 
looking  upon  as  schismatical  intruders,  designed  only  to  answer  worldly 
purposes,  and  uncommissioned  disturbers  of  the  poor  remains  of  that  once 
flourishing  Church,  which  both  their  predecessors  and  they  have,  under 
many  difficulties,  laboured  to  preserve  pure  and  uncorrupted  to  future  ages. 

Article  IV.  With  a  view  to  the  salutary  purpose  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding Articles,  they  agree  in  desiring  that  there  may  be  as  near  a  conformity 
in  worship  and  discipline  established  between  the  two  Churches  as  is  consist- 
ent with  the  different  circumstances  and  customs  of  nations  ;  and  in  order  to 
avoid  any  bad  efTects  that  might  otherwise  arise  from  political  differences, 
they  hereby  express  their  earnest  wish  and  firm  intention  to  observe  such 
prudent  generality  in  their  public  prayers,  with  respect  to  these  points,  as 
shall  appear  most  agreeable  to  apostolic  rules  and  the  practice  of  the  primi- 
tive Church. 

Article  V.  As  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  or  the  administra- 
tion of  the  sacrament  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  is  the  principal  bond 
of  union  among  Christians,  as  well  as  the  most  solemn  act  of  worship  in  the 
Christian  Church,  the  Bishops  aforesaid  agree  in  desiring  that  there  may  be 
as  little  variance  here  as  possible.  And  though  the  Scottish  Bishops  are 
very  far  from  prescribing  to  their  brethren  in  this  matter,  they  cannot  help 
ardently  wishing  that  Bishop  Seabury  would  endeavour  all  he  can,  consist- 
ently with  peace  and  prudence,  to  make  the  celebration  of  this  venerable 
mystery  conformable  to  the  most  primitive  doctrine  and  practice  in  that 
respect,  which  is  the  pattern  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  copied  after  in  her 
Communion  Office,  and  which  it  has  been  the  wish  of  some  of  the  most 
eminent  divines  of  the  Church  of  England  that  she  also  had  more  closely 
followed  than  she  seems  to  have  done  since  she  gave  up  her  first  reformed 
liturgy  used  in  the  reign  of  King  Edward  VI.,  between  which  and  the  form 
used  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  there  is  no  difference  in  any  point  which  the 
primitive  Church  reckoned  essential  to  the  right  ministration  of  the  Holy 
Eucharist.  In  this  capital  article  therefore  of  the  Eucharistic  service,  in 
which  the  Scottish  Bishops  so  earnestly  wish  for  as  much  unity  as  possible, 
Bishop  Seabury  also  agrees  to  take  a  serious  view  of  the  Communion  Office 
recommended  Ijy  them,  and  if  found  agreeal)le  to  the  genuine  standards  of 
antiquitv,  to  give  his  sanction  to  it,  and  by  gentle  methods  of  argument  and 
persuasion,  to  endeavour,  as  they  have  done,  to  introduce  it  by  degrees  into 
practice,  without  the  compulsion  of  authority  on  the  one  side,  or  the  prejudice 
of  former  custom  on  the  other. 

Article  VI.  It  is  also  hereby  agreed  and  resolved  upon,  for  the  better 
answering  the  purposes  of  this  Concordate,  that  a  brotherly  fellowship  be 
henceforth  maintained  between  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  Scotland  and 
Connecticut,  and  such  a  mutual  intercourse  of  ecclesiastical  correspondence 
carried  on,  when  opportunity  offers  or  necessity  requires,  as  may  tend  to  the 
support  and  edification  of  both  Churches. 


5^4 


APPENDIX. 


Article  VII.  The  Bishops  aforesaid  do  hereby  jointly  declare,  in  the 
most  solemn  manner,  that  in  the  whole  of  this  transaction  they  have  nothing 
else  in  view  but  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  His  Church;  and  being 
thus  pure  and  upright  in  their  intentions,  they  cannot  but  hope  that  all  whom 
it  may  concern  will  put  the  most  fair  and  candid  construction  on  their  con- 
duct, and  take  no  offence  at  their  feeble  but  sincere  endeavours  to  promote 
what  they  believe  to  be  the  cause  of  truth  and  of  the  common  salvation. 

In  testimony  of  their  love,  to  which,  and  in  mutual  good  faith  and  confi- 
dence, they  have  for  themselves  and  their  successors  in  office  cheerfully  put 
their  names  and  seals  to  these  presents  at  Aberdeen,  this  fifteenth  day  of 
November,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty- 
four. 

Robert  Kilgour,  Bishop  and  Primus.     [L.  S.] 
Arthur  Petrie,  BisJiop.     [L.  S.] 
John  Skinner,  Junr.,  Bishop.     [L.  S.j 
Samuel  Seabury,  Bishop.     [L.  S.] 


APPENDIX   AA. 

correspondence   with   the   ENGLISH     ARCHBISHOPS   AND    BISHOPS    CON- 
CERNING  CONFERRING  THE   EPISCOPATE   ON   AMERICA. 

The  action  of  the  Convention  in  this  matter  is  summed  up  in  the  address 
and  resolves  which  we  append.  With  a  few  verbal  alterations,  they  are  the 
composition  of  Dr.  William  White,  and  are  worthy  of  remembrance  from 
their  dignified  and  courteous  style,  and  the  careful  avoidance  of  fawning  or 
flattery.     The  resolutions  were  as  follows  : 

"  Resoh'ed:  I.  That  this  Convention  address  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops 
of  the  Church  of  England,  requesting  them  to  confer  the  Episcopal  character 
on  such  persons  as  shall  be  chosen  and  recommended  to  them  for  that  pur- 
pose from  the  Conventions  of  this  Church  in  the  respective  States. 

"II.  That  it  be  recommended  to  the  said  Conventions  that  they  elect  per- 
sons for  this  purpose. 

"III.  That  it  be  further  recommended  to  the  different  Conventions,  at  their 
next  respective  sessions,  to  appoint  committees,  with  powers  to  correspond 
with  the  English  bishops,  for  the  carrying  of  these  resolutions  into  effect; 
and  that  until  such  committees  shall  be  appointed,  they  be  requested  to  direct 
any  communications  which  they  may  be  pleased  to  make  on  this  sul)ject  to 
the  committee,  consisting  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  White  (President),  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Smith,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Provoost,  the  Hon.  James  Duane,  and  Samuel  Powell 
and  Richard  Peters,  ICsquires. 

"  IV.  That  it  be  further  recommended  to  the  different  Conventions,  that 
they  pay  especial  attention  to  the  making  it  appear  to  their  Lordships,  that 
the  persons  who  shall  be  sent  to  them  for  consecration  are  desired  in  the 
character  of  Bishops,  as  well  by  the  Laity  as  by  the  Clergy  of  this  Church  in 
the  said  States,  respectively ;  and  that  they  will  be  received  by  them  in  that 
character  on  their  return. 

"  V.  And  in  order  to  assure  their  Lordships  of  the  legality  of  the  present 
proposed  application,  that  the  Deputies  now  assembled  be  desired  to  make 
a  respectful  address  to  the  civil  rulers  of  the  States  in  which  they  respectively 


APPENDIX.  565 

reside,  to  certify  that  the  said  application  is  not  contrary  to  the  Constitutions 
and  laws  of  the  same. 

"  VI.  And  whereas  the  Bishops  of  this  Church  will  not  be  entitled  to  any 
of  such  temporal  honours  as  are  due  to  tlie  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  the 
Parent  Church,  in  quality  of  Lords  of  Parliament ;  and  whereas  the  reputa- 
tion and  usefulness  of  our  Bishops  will  considerably  depend  on  their  taking 
no  higher  titles  or  stile  than  will  be  due  to  their  spiritual  employments  ;  that 
it  be  recommended  to  this  Church,  in  the  States  here  represented,  to  provide 
that  their  respective  Bishops  may  be  called  '  The  Rt.  Rev.  A.  B.,  Bishop  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  C.  D.,'  and,  as  a  Bishop,  may  have  no 
other  title,  and  may  not  use  any  such  stile  as  is  usually  descriptive  of  tem- 
poral power  and  precedency." 

First  Letter. 

"  To  the  Most  Reve^'end  and  Right  Reverend  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury 
and  York,  and  the  Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England. 

"  We  the  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  sundry  of  the  United  States  of  America,  think  it  our  duty  to  address  your 
Lordships  on  a  subject  deeply  interesting,  not  only  to  ourselves  and  those 
whom  we  represent,  but,  as  we  conceive,  to  the  common  cause  of  Christianity. 

"  Our  forefathers,  when  they  left  the  land  of  their  nativity,  did  not  leave 
the  bosom  of  that  Church  over  which  your  Lordships  now  preside ;  but,  as 
well  from  a  veneration  for  Episcopal  government,  as  from  an  attachment  to 
the  admirable  services  of  our  Liturgy,  continued  in  willing  connection  with 
their  ecclesiastical  superiors  in  England,  and  were  subjected  to  many  local 
inconveniences,  rather  than  break  the  unity  of  the  Church  to  which  they  be- 
longed. 

"  When  it  pleased  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  universe,  that  this  part  of  the 
British  empire  should  be  free,  sovereign,  and  independent,  it  became  the  most 
important  concern  of  the  members  of  our  Communion  to  provide  for  its  con- 
tinuance. And  while,  in  accomplishing  of  this,  they  kept  in  view  that  wise 
and  liberal  part  of  the  system  of  the  Church  of  England  which  excludes  as 
well  the  claiming  as  the  acknowledging  of  such  spiritual  subjection  as  may 
be  inconsistent  with  the  civil  duties  of  her  children ;  it  was  nevertheless  their 
earnest  desire  and  resolution  to  retain  the  venerable  form  of  Episcopal  gov- 
ernment handed  down  to  them,  as  they  conceive,  from  the  time  of  the  Apos- 
tles, and  endeared  to  them  by  the  remembrance  of  the  holy  Bishops  of  the 
primitive  Church,  of  the  blessed  Martyrs  who  reformed  the  doctrine  and  wor- 
sliip  of  the  Cliurch  of  England,  and  of  the  many  great  and  pious  Prelates  who 
have  adorned  that  Church  in  every  succeeding  age.  But  however  general  tlie 
desire  of  compleating  the  Orders  of  our  Ministry,  so  diffused  and  unconnected 
were  the  members  of  our  Communion  over  this  extensive  country,  that  much 
time  and  negociation  were  necessary  for  the  forming  a  representative  body  of 
the  greater  number  of  Episcopalians  in  these  States  ;  and  owing  to  the  same 
causes,  it  was  not  until  this  Convention  that  sufficient  powers  could  be  pro- 
cured for  the  addressing  your  Lordships  on  this  subject. 

"  The  petition  which  we  offer  to  your  Venerable  ISody  is, — that  from  a  ten- 
der regard  to  the  religious  interests  of  tliousands  in  this  rising  empire,  pro- 
fessing the  same  religious  principles  with  the  Church  of  England,  you  will  lie 
pleased  to  confer  the  Episcopal  character  on  such  persons  as  sliall  be  recom- 


566 


APPENDIX. 


mended  by  this  Church  in  the  several  States  here  represented — full  satisfaction 
being  given  of  the  sufificiency  of  the  persons  recommended,  and  of  its  being 
the  intention  of  the  general  body  of  the  Episcopalians  in  the  said  States  re- 
spectively, to  receive  them  in  the  quality  of  Bishops. 

"  Whether  this  our  request  will  meet  with  insurmountable  impediments,  . 
from  the  political  regulations  of  the  kingdom  in  which  your  Lordships  fill  such 
distinguished  stations,  it  is  not  for  us  to  foresee.  We  have  not  been  ascer- 
tained that  any  such  will  exist ;  and  are  humbly  of  opinion,  that  as  citizens 
of  these  States,  interested  in  their  prosperity,  and  religiously  regarding  the 
allegiance  which  we  owe  them,  it  is  to  an  ecclesiastical  source  only  we  can 
apply  in  the  present  exigency. 

"  It  may  be  of  consequence  to  observe,  that  in  these  States  there  is  a  sep- 
aration between  the  concerns  of  policy  and  those  of  religion  ;  that,  accordingly, 
our  civil  rulers  cannot  officially  join  in  the  present  application  ;  that,  however, 
we  are  far  from  apprehending  the  opposition  or  even  displeasure  of  any  of 
those  honourable  personages  ;  and  finally,  that  in  this  business  we  are  justified 
by  the  Constitutions  of  the  States,  which  are  the  foundations  and  controul  of 
all  our  laws.  On  this  point  we  beg  leave  to  refer  to  the  enclosed  extracts 
from  the  Constitutions  of  the  respective  States  of  which  we  are  citizens,  and 
we  flatter  ourselves  that  they  must  be  satisfactory. 

"  Thus,  we  have  stated  to  your  Lordships  the  nature  and  the  grounds  of 
our  application  ;  which  we  have  thought  it  most  respectful  and  most  suitable 
to  the  magnitude  of  the  object,  to  address  to  your  Lordships  for  your  delib- 
eration before  any  person  is  sent  over  to  carry  them  into  effect.  Whatever 
may  be  the  event,  no  time  will  efface  the  remembrance  of  the  past  services 
of  your  Lordships  and  your  predecessors.  The  Archbishops  of  Canterl)ury 
were  not  prevented,  even  by  the  weighty  concerns  of  their  high  stations,  from 
attending  to  the  interests  of  this  distant  branch  of  the  Church  under  their 
care.  The  Bishops  of  London  were  our  Diocesans  ;  and  the  uninterrupted 
although  voluntary  submission  of  our  congregations,  will  remain  a  perpetual 
proof  of  their  mild  and  paternal  government.  All  the  Bishops  of  England, 
with  other  distinguished  characters,  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil,  have  con- 
curred in  forming  and  carrying  on  the  benevolent  views  of  the  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  :  a  Society  to  whom,  under  God, 
the  prosperity  of  our  Church  is  in  an  eminent  degree  to  be  ascribed.  It  is 
our  earnest  wish  to  be  permitted  to  make,  through  your  Lordships,  this  just 
acknowledgment  to  that  venerable  Society ;  a  tribute  of  gratitude  which  we 
the  rather  take  this  opportunity  of  paying,  as  while  they  thought  it  necessary 
to  withdraw  their  pecuniary  assistance  from  our  Ministers,  they  have  endeared 
their  past  favours  by  a  benevolent  declaration,  that  it  is  far  from  their  thoughts 
to  alienate  their  affection  from  their  brethren  now  under  another  government 
— with  the  pious  wish,  that  their  former  exertions  may  still  continue  to  bring 
forth  the  fruits  they  aimed  at  of  pure  religion  and  virtue.  Our  hearts  are 
penetrated  with  the  most  lively  gratitude  by  these  generous  sentiments  ;  the 
long  succession  of  former  benefits  passes  in  review  before  us  ;  we  pray  that 
our  Church  may  be  a  lasting  monument  of  the  usefulness  of  so  worthy  a  body  ; 
and  that  her  scins  may  never  cease  to  be  kindly  affectioned  to  the  members  of 
that  Church,  the  Fathers  of  which  have  so  tenderly  watched  over  her  infancy. 

"  For  your  Lordships  in  particular,  we  most  sincerely  wish  and  pray,  that 
you  may  long  continue  the  ornaments  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  at  last 
receive  the  reward  of  the  righteous  from  the  great  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of 
souls. 


APPENDIX.  567 

"  We  are,  with  all  the  respect  which  is  due  to  your  exalted  and  venerable 
characters  and  stations, 

"  Your  Lordships 

"  Most  obedient  and 

"  Most  humble  Servants. 
"  (Signed  by  the  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  of  the  Convention.) 

"  In  Convention  : 

"  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, 

"  October  5th,  1785." 

Second  Letter. 

"  To  the  Most  Reverejid  and  Right  Reverend  Fathers  in  God,  the  Archbishops 
and  Bishops  of  the  Church  0/  England. 

"  Most  Worthy  and  Venerable  Prelates:  We  the  Clerical  and  Lay 
Deputies  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  States  of  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  South  Carolina, 
have  received  the  friendly  and  affectionate  letter  which  your  Lordships  did  us 
the  honour  to  write  on  the  24th  day  of  February,  and  for  which  we  request 
you  to  accept  our  sincere  and  grateful  acknowledgments. 

"  It  gives  us  pleasure  to  be  assured,  that  the  success  of  our  application  will 
probably  meet  with  no  greater  obstacles  than  what  have  arisen  from  doubts 
respecting  the  extent  of  the  alterations  we  have  made  and  proposed ;  and  we 
are  happy  to  learn,  that  as  no  political  impediments  oppose  us  here,  those 
which  at  present  exist  in  England  may  be  removed. 

"  While  doubts  remain  of  our  continuing  to  hold  the  same  essential  articles 
of  faith  and  discipline  with  the  Church  of  England,  we  acknowledge  the  pro- 
priety of  suspending  a  compliance  with  our  request. 

"  We  are  unanimous  and  explicit  in  assuring  your  Lordships,  that  we 
neither  have  departed,  nor  propose  to  depart  from  the  doctrines  of  your 
Church.  We  have  retained  the  same  discipline  and  forms  of  worship  as  far 
as  was  consistent  with  our  civil  Constitutions  ;  and  we  have  made  no  altera- 
tions or  omissions  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  but  such  as  that  consid- 
eration prescribed,  and  such  as  were  calculated  to  remove  objections  which  it 
appeared  to  us  more  conducive  to  union  and  general  content  to  obviate  than 
to  dispute.  It  is  well  known,  that  many  great  and  pious  men  of  the  Church 
of  England  have  long  wished  for  a  revision  of  the  Liturgy,  which  it  was 
deemed  imprudent  to  hazard,  lest  it  might  become  a  precedent  for  repeated 
and  improper  alterations.  This  is  with  us  the  proper  season  for  such  a  re- 
vision. We  are  now  settling  and  ordering  the  affairs  of  our  Church,  and  if 
wisely  done,  we  shall  have  reason  to  promise  ourselves  all  the  advantages 
that  can  result  from  stability  and  union. 

' '  We  are  anxious  to  complete  our  Episcopal  system  by  means  of  the  Church 
of  England.  We  esteem  and  prefer  it,  and  with  gratitude  acknowledge  the 
patronage  and  favours  for  which,  while  connected,  we  have  constantly  been 
indebted  to  that  Church.  These  considerations,  added  to  that  of  agreement 
in  faith  and  worship,  press  us  to  repeat  our  former  request,  and  to  endeavour 
to  remove  your  present  hesitation,  by  sending  you  our  proposed  Ecclesiastical 
Constitution  and  Book  of  Common  I'rayer. 

■'  These  documents,  we  trust,  will  afford  a  full  answer  to  every  question 
that  can  arise  on  the  subject.     We  consider  your  Lordships'  letter  as  very 


568  APPENDIX.     ■ 

candid  and  kind.  We  repose  full  confidence  in  the  assurance  it  gives;  and 
that  confidence,  together  with  the  liberality  and  Catholicism  of  your  venerable 
body,  leads  us  to  flatter  ourselves,  that  you  will  not  disclaim  a  branch  of  your 
Church  merely  for  having  been,  in  your  Lordships'  opinion,  if  that  should 
be  the  case,  pruned  rather  more  closely  than  its  separation  made  absolutely 
necessary. 

"  We  have  only  to  add,  that  as  our  Church  in  sundry  of  these  States  have 
already  proceeded  to  the  election  of  persons  to  be  sent  for  consecration,  and 
others  may  soon  proceed  to  the  same,  we  pray  to  be  favoured  with  as  speedy 
an  answer  to  this  our  second  address,  as  in  your  great  goodness  you  were 
pleased  to  give  to  our  former  one. 

"  We  are, 

"  With  great  and  sincere  respect, 

"  Most  worthy  and  venerable  Prelates, 
' '  Your  obedient  and 

"  Very  humble  servants. 
"  (Signed  by  the  President  and  Members  of  the  Convention.) 

"  In  Convention: 

"  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, 

"June  26,  1786." 


APPENDIX   B. 

A  GENERAL  ECCLESIASTICAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCO- 
PAL CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA,  AGREED  UPON  AT 
THE    CONVENTION    HELD    IN    PHILADELPHIA,    SEPTEMBER,     1 785. 

Whereas,  in  the  course  of  Divine  Providence,  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  is  become  independent  of  all  foreign 
authority,  civil  and  ecclesiastical : 

And  Whereas,  at  a  meeting  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  of  the  said 
Church,  in  sundry  of  the  said  States,  viz.,  in  the  States  of  Massachusetts, 
Rliode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
and  Maryland,  held  in  the  city  of  New  York  on  the  6th  and  7th  days  of  Octo- 
ber, in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1784,  it  was  recommended  to  this  Church  in  the 
said  States  represented  as  aforesaid,  and  proposed  to  this  Church  in  the  States 
not  represented,  that  they  should  send  Deputies  to  a  Convention  to  lie  held 
in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  on  the  Tuesday  before  the  Feast  of  St.  Michael 
in  this  present  year,  in  order  to  unite  in  a  Constitution  of  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment, agreeably  to  certain  fundamental  principles,  expressed  in  the  said 
recommendation  and  proposal. 

And  Whereas,  in  consequence  of  the  said  recommendation  and  proposal. 
Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  have  been  duly  appointed  from  the  said  Church 
in  the  States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  and  South  Carolina. 

The  said  Deputies  being  now  assembled,  and  taking  into  consideration  the 
importance  of  maintaining  uniformity  in  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship  in 
the  said  Church,  do  hereby  determine  and  declare : 

I.  That  tliere  shall  be  a  General  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Churcli  in  the  United  States  of  America,  wliich  shall  be  held  in  the  city  of 


APPENDIX.  569 

Philadelphia  on  the  third  Tuesday  in  June,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1786,  and 
for  ever  after  once  in  three  years,  on  the  third  Tuesday  of  June,  in  such  place 
as  shall  be  determined  by  the  Convention  ;  and  special  meetings  may  be  held 
at  such  other  times  and  in  such  place  as  shall  be  hereafter  provided  for ;  and 
this  Church,  in  a  majority  of  the  States  aforesaid,  shall  be  represented  before 
they  proceed  to  business  ;  except  that  the  representation  of  this  Church  from 
two  States  shall  be  sufficient  to  adjourn ;  and  in  all  business  of  the  Conven- 
tion freedom  of  debate  shall  be  allowed. 

II.  There  shall  be  a  representation  of  both  Clergy  and  Laity  of  the  Church 
in  each  State,  which  shall  consist  of  one  or  more  Deputies,  not  exceeding  four 
of  each  Order ;  and  in  all  questions,  the  said  Church  in  each  State  shall  have 
one  vote ;  and  a  majority  of  suflfrages  shall  be  conclusive. 

III.  In  the  said  Church  in  every  State  represented  in  this  Convention, 
there  shall  be  a  Convention  consisting  of  the  Clergy  and  Lay  Deputies  of  the 
congregation. 

IV.  "  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments 
and  other  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church,  according  to  the  use  of  the 
Church  of  England,"  shall  be  continued  to  be  used  by  this  Church,  as  the 
same  is  altered  by  this  Convention,  in  a  certain  instrument  of  writing  passed 
by  their  authority,  intituled,  "  Alterations  of  the  Liturgy  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  in  order  to  render  the 
same  conformable  to  the  American  Revolution  and  the  Constitutions  of  the 
respective  States." 

V.  In  every  State  where  there  shall  be  a  Bishop  duly  consecrated  and  set- 
tled, and  who  shall  have  acceded  to  the  articles  of  this  General  Ecclesiastical 
Constitution,  he  shall  be  considered  as  a  member  of  the  Convention  ex  officio. 

VI.  The  Bishop  or  Bishops  in  every  State  shall  be  chosen  agreeably  to 
such  rules  as  shall  be  fixed  by  the  respective  Conventions  ;  and  every  Bishop 
of  this  Church  shall  confine  the  exercise  of  his  Episcopal  office  to  his  proper 
jurisdiction,  unless  requested  to  ordain  or  confirm  by  any  church  destitute  of 
a  Bishop. 

VII.  A  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  any  of  the  United  States  not  now 
represented,  may  at  any  time  hereafter  be  admitted,  on  acceding  to  the  arti- 
cles of  this  union. 

VIII.  Every  clergyman,  whether  bishop,  or  presbyter,  or  deacon,  shall  be 
amenable  to  the  authority  of  the  Convention  in  the  State  to  which  he  belongs, 
so  far  as  relates  to  suspension  or  removal  from  office ;  and  the  Convention  in 
each  State  shall  institute  rules  for  their  conduct,  and  an  equitable  mode  of 
trial. 

IX.  And  whereas  it  is  represented  to  this  Convention  to  be  the  desire  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  these  States,  that  there  may  be  further 
alterations  of  the  Liturgy  than  such  as  are  made  necessary  by  the  American 
Revolution;  therefore  the  "  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of 
the  Sacraments  and  other  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church,  according  to 
the  use  of  the  Church  of  England,"  as  altered  by  an  instrument  of  writing 
passed  under  the  authority  of  this  Convention,  intituled  "  Alterations  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of  tlie  Sacraments  and  other 
Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church,  according  to  the  use  of  the  Church  of 
England,  proposed  and  recommended  to  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  United  States  of  America,"  shall  be  used  in  this  Church  when  the  same 
sliall  have  been  ratified  by  the  Conventions  which  have  respectively  sent 
Deputies  to  this  General  Convention. 


5  70  APPENDIX. 

X.  No  person  shall  be  ordained  or  permitted  to  officiate  as  a  minister  in 
this  Church,  until  he  shall  have  subscribed  the  following  declaration:  "  I  do 
believe  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  to  be  the  word 
of  God,  and  to  contain  all  things  necessary  to  salvation  ;  and  I  do  solemnly 
engage  to  conform  to  the  doctrines  and  worship  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  as  settled  and  determined  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  Ad- 
ministration of  the  Sacraments,  set  forth  by  the  General  Convention  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  these  United  States." 

XI.  This  General  Ecclesiastical  Constitution,  when  ratified  by  the  Church 
in  the  different  States,  shall  be  considered  as  fundamental,  and  shall  be  un- 
alterable by  the  Convention  of  the  Church  in  any  State. 


APPENDIX   C. 

CANONS  FOR  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA,  AGREED  ON  AND  RATIFIED  IN 
THE  GENERAL  CONVENTION  OF  SAID  CHURCH,  HELD  IN  THE  CITY  OF 
PHILADELPHIA,  FROM  THE  TWENTY-EIGHTH  DAY'  OF  JULY  TO  THE 
EIGHTH    DAY   OF  AUGUST,   1 789,  INCLUSIVE. 

CANON    I. 

In  this  Church  there  shall  always  be  three  Orders  in  the  Ministry,  viz., 
Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons. 


Every  Bishop  elect,  before  his  consecration,  shall  produce  to  the  Bishops, 
to  whom  he  is  presented  for  that  holy  office,  from  the  Convention  by  whom 
he  is  elected  a  Bishop,  and  from  the  General  Convention,  or  a  Committee  of 
that  body  appointed  to  act  in  their  recess,  certificates,  respectively  in  the  fol- 
lowing words,  viz.  : 

Tcst'unouy  from  the  RTembcrs  of  the  Convention  in  the  State  from  ivhe)ice  the 
Person  is  recotnmefided for  Consecration. 

We,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  fully  sensible  how  important  it  is,  that 
the  sacred  office  of  a  Bishop  should  not  be  unworthily  conferred,  and  firmly 
persuaded  that  it  is  our  duty  to  bear  testimony  on  this  solemn  occasion  with- 
out partiality  or  affection,  do,  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  testify,  that 
A  B  is  not,  so  far  as  we  are  informed,  justly  liable  to  evil  report,  either  for 
error  in  religion  or  for  viciousness  of  life  ;  and  that  we  do  not  know  or  believe 
there  is  any  impediment  or  notable  crime  for  which  he  ought  not  to  be  con- 
secrated to  that  holy  office.  We  do,  moreover,  jointly  and  severally  declare 
that,  having  personally  known  him  for  three  years  last  past,  we  do  in  our 
consciences  believe  him  to  be  of  such  sufficiency  in  good  learning,  such  sound- 
ness in  the  faith,  and  of  such  virtuous  and  pure  manners  and  godly  conversa- 
tion, that  he  is  apt  and  meet  to  exercise  the  office  of  a  Bishop,  to  the  honour 
of  God  and  the  edifying  of  his  Church,  and  to  be  an  wholesome  example  to 
the  flock  of  Christ. 


APPENDIX.  .  571 

Testimony  from  the  General  Convention. 

We  whose  names  are  underwritten,  fully  sensible  how  important  it  is  that 
the  sacred  office  of  a  Bishop  should  not  be  unworthily  conferred,  and  firmly 
persuaded  that  it  is  our  duty  to  bear  our  testimony  on  this  solemn  occasion 
without  partiality  or  affection,  do,  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  testify 
that  A  B  is  not,  so  far  as  we  are  informed,  justly  liable  to  evil  report  either 
for  error  in  religion  or  for  viciousness  of  life ;  and  that  we  do  not  know  or 
believe  there  is  any  impediment  or  notable  crime,  on  account  of  which  he 
ought  not  to  be  consecrated  to  that  holy  office,  but  that  he  hath,  as  we 
believe,  led  his  life,  for  the  three  years  last  past,  piously,  soberly,  and  hon- 
estly. 

CANON    3. 

Every  Bishop  in  this  Church  shall,  as  often  as  may  be  convenient,  visit  the 
churches  within  his  Diocese  or  district,  for  the  purposes  of  examining  the 
state  of  his  Church,  inspecting  the  behaviour  of  the  clergy,  and  administering 
the  apostolic  rite  of  Confirmation. 

CANON   4. 

Deacon's  Orders  shall  not  be  conferred  on  any  person  until  he  shall  be 
twenty-one  years  old,  nor  Priest's  Orders  on  any  one  until  he  shall  be 
twenty-four  years  old ;  and,  except  on  urgent  occasion,  unless  he  hath  been 
a  Deacon  one  year.  No  man  shall  be  consecrated  a  Bishop  of  this  Church 
until  he  shall  be  thirty  years  old. 

CANON    5. 

No  person  shall  be  ordained  either  Deacon  or  Priest,  unless  he  shall 
produce  a  satisfactory  certificate  from  some  Church,  parish,  or  congregation, 
that  he  is  engaged  with  them,  and  that  they  will  receive  him  as  their  minister 
and  allow  him  a  reasonable  support ;  or  unless  he  be  engaged  as  a  professor, 
tutor  or  instructor  of  youth,  in  some  college,  academy,  or  general  seminary 
of  learning,  duly  incorporated ;  or  unless  the  Standing  Committee  of  the 
Church  in  the  State  for  which  he  is  to  be  ordained,  shall  certify  to  the  Bishop 
their  full  belief  and  expectation,  that  he  will  be  received  and  settled  as  a 
pastor  by  some  one  of  the  vacant  churches  in  that  State. 

CANON    6. 

Every  candidate  for  Holy  Orders  shall  be  recommended  to  the  Bishop  by 
a  Standing  Committee  of  the  Convention  of  the  State  wherein  he  resides, 
which  recommendation  shall  be  signed  by  the  names  of  a  majority  of  the 
Committee,  and  shall  be  in  the  following  words  : 

We,  whose  names  are  hereunder  written,  testify  that  A  B,  for  the  space 
of  three  years  last  past,  hath  lived  piously,  soberly,  and  honestly :  Nor  hath 
he  at  any  time,  as  far  as  we  know  or  believe,  written,  taught,  or  held,  any- 
thing contrary  to  the  doctrine  or  discipline  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.  And,  moreover,  we  think  him  a  person  worthy  to  be  admitted  to 
the  sacred  order  of  priest.  In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunto  set  our 
hands.     Dated  the day  of ,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord . 


572 


APPENDIX. 


But  before  a  Standing  Committee  of  any  State  shall  proceed  to  recommend 
any  candidate,  as  aforesaid,  to  the  Bishop,  such  candidate  shall  produce  testi- 
monials of  his  good  morals  and  orderly  conduct  for  three  years  last  past, 
from  the  Minister  and  Vestry  of  the  parish  where  he  has  resided,  or  from 
the  Vestry  alone  if  the  parish  be  vacant — a  publication  of  his  intention  to 
apply  for  Holy  Orders  having  been  previously  made  by  such  Minister  or 
Vestry. 

CANON    7. 

In  every  State  in  which  there  is  no  Standing  Committee,  such  Committee 
shall  be  appointed  at  its  next  ensuing  Convention  ;  and  in  the  mean  time,  every 
candidate  for  Holy  Orders  shall  be  recommended  according  to  the  regulations 
or  usage  of  the  Church  in  each  State,  and  the  requisitions  of  the  Bishop  to 
whom  he  applies. 

CANON   8. 

No  person  shall  be  ordained  in  this  Church  until  he  shall  have  satisfied 
the  Bishop  and  the  two  Presbyters,  by  whom  he  shall  be  examined,  that  he 
is  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  New  Testament  in  the  original  Greek,  and 
can  give  an  account  of  his  faith  in  the  Latin  tongue,  either  in  writing  or 
otherwise,  as  may  be  required. 

CANON   9. 

Agreeably  to  the  practice  of  the  primitive  Church,  the  stated  times  of 
Ordination  shall  be  on  the  Sundays  following  the  Ember  weeks,  viz.,  the 
Second  Sunday  in  Lent,  the  Feast  of  Trinity,  and  the  Sundays  after  the 
Wednesdays  following  the  fourteenth  day  of  September  and  the  thirteenth  of 
December. 

CANON    ID. 

No  person,  not  a  member  of  this  Church,  who  shall  profess  to  be  episco- 
pally  ordained,  shall  be  permitted  to  oflkiate  therein,  until  he  shall  have 
exhibited  to  the  Vestry  of  the  Church  in  which  he  shall  offer  to  officiate,  a 
certificate  signed  by  the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  or  district,  or,  where  there  is 
no  Bishop,  by  three  Clergymen  of  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Convention 
of  that  State,  that  his  Letters  of  Orders  are  authentic,  and  given  by  some 
Bishop  whose  authority  is  acknowledged  by  this  Church,  and  also  satisfactory 
evidence  of  his  moral  character. 

Signed,  by  order  of  the  Convention, 

William  White, 
Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Commonwealth 
of  Pentisylvania,  and  President  of  the  Convention. 

Francis  Hopkinson,  Secretary. 


APPENDIX   D. 

THE    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSED    TO   THE    HOUSE    OF    BISHOPS,    1853. 

To  the  Bishops  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  in  Coimcil  assembled. 

Right  Reverend  Fathers:  The  undersigned,  presbyters  of  the  Church 
of  which  you  have  the  oversight,  venture  to  approach  your  venerable  body 


APPENDIX.  573 

with  an  expression  of  sentiment,  which  their  estimate  of  your  office  in  rela- 
tion to  the  times  does  not  permit  them  to  withhold.  In  so  doing,  they  have 
confidence  in  your  readiness  to  appreciate  their  motives  and  their  aims.  The 
actual  posture  of  our  Church  with  reference  to  tlie  great  moral  and  social 
necessities  of  the  day,  presents  to  the  minds  of  the  undersigned  a  subject  of 
grave  and  anxious  thought.  Did  they  suppose  that  this  was  confined  to 
themselves,  they  would  not  feel  warranted  in  submitting  it  to  your  attention ; 
but  they  believe  it  to  be  participated  in  by  many  of  their  brethren,  who  may 
not  have  seen  the  expediency  of  declaring  their  views,  or  at  least  a  mature 
season  for  such  a  course. 

The  divided  and  distracted  state  of  our  American  Protestant  Christianity, 
the  new  and  subtle  forms  of  unbelief  adapting  themselves  with  fatal  success 
to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  the  consolidated  forces  of  Romanism  bearing  with 
renewed  skill  and  activity  against  the  Protestant  faith,  and  as  more  or  less 
the  consequence  of  these,  the  utter  ignorance  of  the  Gospel  among  so  large 
a  portion  of  the  lower  classes  of  our  population,  making  a  heathen  world  in 
our  midst,  are  among  the  considerations  which  induce  your  memorialists  to 
present  the  inquiry  whether  the  period  has  not  arrived  for  the  adoption  of 
measures,  to  meet  these  exigencies  of  the  times,  more  comprehensive  than 
any  yet  provided  for  by  our  present  ecclesiastical  system :  in  other  words, 
whether  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  with  only  her  present  canonical 
means  and  appliances,  her  fixed  and  invariable  modes  of  public  worship,  and 
her  traditional  customs  and  usages,  is  competent  to  the  work  of  preaching 
and  dispensing  the  Gospel  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  so  adequate 
to  do  the  work  of  the  Lord  in  this  land  and  in  this  age?  This  question,  your 
petitioners,  for  their  own  part,  and  in  consonance  with  many  thoughtful 
minds  among  us,  believe  must  be  answered  in  the  negative.  Their  memorial 
proceeds  on  the  assumption  that  our  Church,  confined  to  the  exercise  of  her 
present  system,  is  not  sufficient  to  the  great  purposes  above  mentioned — that 
a  wider  door  must  be  opened  for  admission  to  the  Gospel  ministry  than  that 
through  which  her  candidates  for  holy  orders  are  now  obliged  to  enter.  Be- 
sides such  candidates  among  her  own  members,  it  is  believed  that  men  can 
be  found  among  the  other  bodies  of  Christians  around  us,  who  would  gladly 
receive  ordination  at  your  hands,  could  they  obtain  it,  without  that  entire 
surrender  which  would  now  be  required  of  them,  of  all  the  liberty  in  public 
worship  to  which  they  have  been  accustomed — men  who  could  not  bring 
themselves  to  conform  in  all  particulars  to  our  prescriptions  and  customs,  but 
yet  sound  in  the  faith,  and  who,  having  the  gifts  of  preachers  and  pastors, 
would  be  able  ministers  of  the  New  Testament.  With  deference  it  is  asked, 
ought  such  an  accession  to  your  means  in  executing  your  high  commission, 
"  Go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,"  be  refused, 
for  the  sake  of  conformity  in  matters  recognized  in  the  preface  to  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  as  unessentials?  Dare  we  pray  the  Lord  of  the  harvest 
to  send  forth  laborers  into  the  harvest,  while  we  reject  all  laborers  but  those 
of  one  peculiar  type?  The  extension  of  orders  to  the  class  of  men  contem- 
plated (with  whatever  safeguards,  not  infringing  on  evangelical  freedom, 
which  your  wisdom  might  deem  expedient),  appears  to  your  petitioners  to  be 
a  subject  supremely  worthy  of  your  deliberations. 

In  addition  to  the  prospect  of  the  immediate  good  which  would  thus  be 
opened,  an  important  step  would  be  taken  towards  the  effecting  of  a  Church 
unity  in  the  Protestant  Christendom  of  our  land.  To  become  a  central  bond 
of  union  among  Christians,  who,  though  differing  in  name,  yet  hold  to  the 


574 


APPENDIX. 


one  Faith,  the  one  Lord,  and  the  one  Baptism,  and  who  need  only  such  a 
bond  to  be  drawn  together  in  closer  and  more  primitive  fellowship,  is  here 
believed  to  be  the  peculiar  province  and  high  privilege  of  your  venerable 
body  as  a  College  of  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Bishops  as  such. 

This  leads  your  petitioners  to  declare  the  ultimate  design  of  their  memorial 
— which  is  to  submit  the  practicability,  under  your  auspices,  of  some  ecclesi- 
astical system,  broader  and  more  comprehensive  than  that  which  you  now 
administer,  surrounding  and  including  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  as  it 
now  is,  leaving  that  Church  untouched,  identical  with  that  Church  in  all  its 
great  principles,  yet  providing  for  as  much  freedom  in  opinion,  discipline,  and 
worship  as  is  compatible  with  the  essential  Faith  and  order  of  the  Gospel. 
To  define  and  act  upon  such  a  system,  it  is  believed,  must  sooner  or  later  be 
the  work  of  an  American  Catholic  Episcopate. 

In  justice  to  themselves  on  this  occasion,  your  memorialists  beg  leave  to 
remark  that,  although  aware  that  the  foregoing  views  are  not  confined  to 
their  own  small  number,  they  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any  other 
parties  contemplate  a  public  expression  of  them,  like  the  present.  Having 
therefore  undertaken  it,  they  trust  that  tliey  have  not  laid  themselves  open  to 
the  charge  of  unwarranted  intrusion.  They  find  their  warrant  in  the  prayer 
now  offered  up  by  all  our  congregations,  ' '  that  the  comfortable  Gospel  of 
Christ  may  be  truly  preached,  truly  received,  and  truly  followed,  in  all  places 
to  the  breaking  down  of  the  kingdom  of  Sin,  Satan  and  Death."  Convinced 
that,  for  the  attainment  of  these  blessed  ends,  there  must  be  some  greater 
concert  of  action  among  Protestant  Christians,  than  any  which  yet  exists,  and 
believing  that  with  you,  Rt.  Rev'd  Fathers,  it  rests  to  take  the  first  measures 
tending  thereto,  your  petitioners  could  not  do  less  than  humbly  submit  their 
memorial  to  such  consideration  as  in  your  wisdom  you  may  see  fit  to  give  it. 
— Praying  that  it  may  not  be  dismissed  without  reference  to  a  Commission, 
and  assuring  you,  Right  Reverend  Fathers,  of  our  dutiful  veneration  and 
esteem. 

We  are,  most  respectfully,  your  Brethren  and  Servants  in  the  Gospel  of 
Christ, 

W.  A.  Muhlenberg,  Alex.  H.  Vinton, 

C.  F.  Cruse,  M.  A.  De  Wolfe  Howe, 

Philip  Berry,  S.  H.  Turner, 

Edwin  Harwood,  S.  R.  Johnson, 

G.  T.  Bedell,  C.  W.  Andrews, 

Henry  Gregory,  and  others. 

New  York,  October  14th,  1853. 

Concurring  in  the  main  purport  of  the  above  memorial,  and  believing  that 
the  necessities  of  the  times  call  for  some  special  efforts  to  promote  unity 
among  Christians,  and  to  enlarge  for  that  and  other  great  ends  the  efficiency 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  not  being  able  to  adopt  certain  sugges- 
tions of  this  memorial,  the  undersigned  most  heartily  join  in  the  prayer  that 
the  subject  may  be  referred  to  a  commission  of  your  venerable  body. 
John  Henry  Hobart,  Francis  Vinton, 

A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  Isaac  G.  Hubbard, 

Ed.  Y.  Higbee,  and  others. 


APPENDIX. 


575 


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APPENDIX. 


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APPENDIX. 


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APPENDIX. 


579 


J^^^  I^  Km  CO  M  CO  (^  c2  CO  00  00  00  CO  (XJOOCOOOOOCOOOCOOOOOOOCOCOOOCOOOCO 

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APPENDIX. 


581 


APPENDIX   F. 


GENERAL    CONVENTIONS. 


PLACE   OF   MEETING. 


Philadelphia I7^S 

Philadelphia 1786 

Wilmington,    Del.    (adjourned 

Convention) 1786 

Philadelphia 1789 

Philadelphia    (adjourned    Con- 
vention)      1789 

New  York 1792 

Philadelphia 1795 

Philadelphia  (special) 1799 

Trenton,  N.  J 1801 

New  York 1804 

Baltimore 1808 

New  Haven,  Conn 181 1 

Philadelphia 1814 

New  York 181 7 

Philadelphia 1820 

Philadelphia  (special) 182 1 

Philadelphia 1823 

Philadelphia 1826 

Philadelphia 1829 

Minneapolis 


PLACE   OF   MEETING.  DATE. 

New  York 1832 

Philadelphia 1835 

Philadelphia 1838 

New  York 1841 

Philadelphia 1844 

New  York 1847 

Cincinnati 1850 

New  York 1853 

Philadelphia 1856 

Richmond,  Va 1859  ' 

New  York 1862 

Philadelphia 1865 

New  York 1868 

Baltimore 1871 

New  York 1874 

Boston 1877 

New  York 1880 

Philadelphia 1883 

Chicago 1886 

New  York 1889 

Baltimore 1892 

1895 


PRESIDING   BISHOPS   OF   THE   PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 


1.  William  White,  Pennsylvania 1789 

2.  Samuel  Seabury,  Connecticut 1 789-1 792 

3.  Samuel  Provoost,  New  York 1 792-1 795 

4.  William  White,  Pennsylvania 1 795-1836 

5.  Alexander  Viets  Griswold,  the  Eastern  Diocese  .  .  .  1836-1843 

6.  Philander  Chase,  Ohio 1843-1852 

7.  Thomas  Church  Brownell,  Connecticut 1 852-1 865 

8.  John  Henry  Hopkins,  Vermont 1865-1868 

g.   Benjamin  Bosworth  Smith,  Kentucky 1868-1884 

10.  Alfred  Lee,  Delaware 18S4-1887 

1 1.  John  Williams,  Connecticut 1887-1895 


582 


APPENDIX. 


SECRETARIES   OF   THE   HOUSE   OF   BISHOPS. 


1789.  Rev. 
1792.  Rev. 
1795.  Rev. 
1799.  Rev. 
1 80 1.  Rev. 
1804.  Rev. 
1808.  Rev. 
1811.  Rev. 
1 8 14.  Rev. 


Joseph  Clarkson. 
Samuel  Keene. 
Josepli  Turner. 
John  Henry  Hobart. 
Henry  Waddell. 
Cave  Jones. 
James  Whitehead. 
Philo  Shelton. 
Jackson  Kemper. 
1892- 


18 1 7.   Rev.  Benjamin  T.  Onderdonk. 
1820-21.   Rev.  William  Augustus  Muh- 
lenberg. 
1823-26.   Rev.  William  H.  De  Lancey. 
1829-38.   Rev.  Bird  Wilson. 
1841-53.   Rev.  Jonathan  M.  Wainwright. 
1853-65.   Rev.  Lewis  P.  Balch. 
1868-83.   Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter. 
1883-92.   Rev.  William  Tatlock. 
Rev.  Samuel  Hart. 


APPENDIX   G. 


PRESIDENTS    AND    SECRETARIES    OF   THE    HOUSE    OF   DEPUTIES. 


1784. 
1785- 
1786. 
1786, 
1789. 
1792. 

1795- 
1801. 
1804- 
181I. 
1S14. 
1817- 
1823. 
1826. 
1S29. 
1832- 
1844- 
1850. 

1853- 
1862- 
1868- 
1877. 
1880. 
188.^- 


PRESIDENTS. 

Rev.  William  Smith,  D.D. 

Rev.  William  White,  D.  D. 

Rev.  David  Griffith. 

October  10.     Rev.  Daniel  Provoost. 

Bishop  White. 

Rev.  William  Smith,  D.D. 
99. 

Rev.  Abraham  Beach. 
08. 

Rev.  Isaac  Wilkins. 

Rev.  John  Croes. 
21.   Rev.  W.  H.  Wilmer. 


SECRETARIES. 


Rev. 
41. 

47- 


William  E.  Wyatt. 


59.   Rev.  Dr.  Creighton. 
65.   Rev.  Dr.  Craik. 

74- 

Rev.  Alexander  Burgess. 

Rev.  E.  Edwards  Beardsley. 
95.   Rev.  Morgan  Dix. 


Rev.  David  Griffith. 
Hon.  Francis  Hopkinson. 


Rev.  John  Bisset. 
Rev.  James  Abercrombie. 
Rev.  Ashbel  Baldwin. 
Rev.  John  Henry  Hobart. 
Rev.  Ashbel  Baldwin. 


Rev.  John  C.  Rudd. 
Rev.  B.  T.  Onderdonk. 

Rev.  Henry  Anthon. 

Rev.  William  Cooper  Mead. 

Rev.  M.  A.  De  W.  Howe. 

Rev.  G.  M.  Randall. 

Rev.  William  Stevens  Perry. 

Rev.  C.  L.  Hutchins. 


APPENDIX.  583 


APPENDIX   H. 


COLLEGES   AND   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARIES. 

KO.  NAME.  PLACE.  PRESIDENT   OR   HEAD. 

1.  Columbia New  York,  N.  Y Hon.  Seth  Low. 

2.  Trinity Hartford,  Conn Rev.  Dr.  G.  Williamson  Smith. 

3.  Hobart Geneva,  N.  Y Rev.  Dr.  E.  N.  Potter. 

4.  Racine Racine,  Wis Rev.  Dr.  Arthur  Piper. 

5.  Griswold Davenport,  la Bishop  Perry. 

6.  Kenyon Gambler,  O Dr.  T.  S.  Sterling. 

7.  St.  Stephen's Annandale,  N.  Y Rev.  Dr.  Fairbairn. 

8.  University  of  the  South Sewanee,  Tenn \  ^^^^P^^l  ^^C^^l 

g.  Lehigh  University South  Bethlehem,  Pa 

1.  General  Theol.  Seminary. . .   New  York,  N.  Y Rev.  Dr.  Hoffman. 

2.  Episcopal  Theol.  School....   Cambridge,  Mass Rev.  Dr.  Hodges. 

3.  Divinity  School West  Philadelphia,  Pa Rev.  Dr.  Bartlett. 

4.  Theol.  Seminary  of  Virginia.   Theol.  Seminary  Va Rev.  Dr.  Packard. 

5.  Berkeley  Div.  School Middletown,  Conn Bishop  Williams. 

6.  Theol.  Dept.  U.  of  South.  . .   Sewanee,  Tenn Rev.  Dr.  Du  Bose. 

7.  Nashotah  House Nashotah,  Wis Rev.  Dr.  Gardner. 

8.  Be.xley  Hall Gambler,  O Rev.  H.  D.  Jones. 

g.   Western  Theol.  Seminary. . .   Chicago,  111 Bishop  McLaren. 

10.  Lee  Hall Davenport,  la Bishop  Perry. 

11.  St.  Andrew's  Div.  School. . .   Syracuse,  N.  Y Bishop  Huntington. 

12.  Seabury  Div.  School Faribault,  Minn Rev.  Dr.  Wells. 

13.  De  Lancey  Div.  School Geneva,  N.  Y Rev.  Dr.  Rankine. 

14.  Denver  Theol.  School Denver,  Colo Bishop  Spalding. 

15.  Pacific  Div.  School San  Mateo Bishop  Nichols. 


GENERAL   SUMMARY    OF    STATISTICS. 

Dioceses  in  the  United  States 53 

Missionary  districts  in  the  United  States 18 

Missionary  jurisdictions  in  foreign  lands 7 

Clergy  (bishops,  81  ;  priests  and  deacons,  4,493) 4>574 

Parishes  and  missions 6,037 

Candidates  for  holy  orders 55^ 

Ordinations,  deacons 221 

Ordinations,  priests 156 

Baptisms 61,815 

Confirmations , 43,711 

Communicants 596,031 

Marriages 36, 1 78 

Burials 30»'^S7 

Sunday-school  teachers 45,461 

Sunday-school  scholars 417,592 

Grand  total  of  contributions $12,281, 126.50 


INDEX. 


Abbot,  Bishop,  15. 

"  Act  for  establishing  Religious  Free- 
dom," Virginia,  51;  Maryland,  59. 

"  Act  of  Association  of  the  Clergy  and 
Congregations  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  Pennsylva- 
nia," 338. 

"  Act  of  the  Clergy  of  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire,"  370. 

Adams,  John,  351,  361. 

Address  to  the  English  bishops,  349- 
352;  answer,  354. 

Africa,  missions  to,  517. 

Albemarle  settlement,  222,  235. 

Allen,  Professor  Alexander  V.  G., 
506. 

Allen,  Thomas,  94. 

American  Church  Building  Fund 
Commission,  549. 

American  Church  Congress,  537. 

American  Church  Missionary  Society, 

459,  517- 
Andrews,  Joseph  R.,  446. 
Andrews,  Robert,  51. 
Andrews,  William,  175. 
Andros,  Governor,  35,  94,  105,  164. 
Anglo-Catholic  party,  534. 
Annapolis,  Convention  of,  304,  306, 

307- 
Anne,  Queen,  169,  190,  214,  269. 
Anthon,  Dr.  Henry,  474. 
"  Apostle  to  the  Indians,"  514. 
Apthorp,  Mr.,  104,  150. 
Archdeaconry  system,  525. 
Argall,  Governor  20. 
Armada,  Spanish,  7. 
Arnold,  Jonathan,  146, 
Asbury,  Francis,  335,  405,  407. 


Ashley  River  Colony,  223,  224. 

Aspinwall,  William  H.,  441. 

Athanasian  Creed,  360,  362,  368. 

Auchmuthy,  Dr.,  182,  184,  187,  273. 

Bacon,  Francis,  15. 

Bailey,  Mr.,  118,  120. 

Baltimore,  Lord,  27,   57,  61.  62,  72, 

77- 
Bancroft,  Archbishop,  12. 
Baptists,  44,  51. 
Barclay,  Henry,  176,  182. 
Barclay,  Thomas,  175,  176. 
Bargrave,  Thomas,  22. 
Bass,  Edward,  370,  373,  398. 
Bass,  Jeremiah,  194. 
Bastow,  J.,  174. 
Beach,  Abraham,  327,  328. 
Beach,  John,  138,  139,  150,  155,  159. 
Berkeley,    Dean    George,    106,    130, 

282,  284,  285,  317,  319,  320. 
Berkeley,  Lord  John,  190. 
Berkeley,  Sir  William,  29,  30 ;  report, 

32,  222. 
Berkeley  Divinity  School,  443,  508, 
Bernon,  Gabriel,  112. 
Bethesda  College,  260. 
Bexley  Hall,  459,  509. 
Biddle,  Charles,  351. 
Bingham,  Solomon,  446. 
Blair,  James,  ^;^,  35. 
Blaxton,  William,  86. 
Blinn,  Peter,  244. 
Blount,  Nathaniel,  244. 
Board  of  Missions,  448,  517,  523. 
Boone,  Bishop,  447,  460,  514. 
Bosomworth,  Thomas,  262. 
Boucher,  Jonathan,  46,  80,  324,  342. 
Bowden,  John,  184. 


585 


586 


INDEX. 


Boyd,  John,  24I. 

Bray,  Thomas,  35,  65,  66,  69,  96,  225, 
270,  278. 

Breck,  James  Lloyd,  493. 

Bridge,  Christopher,  95,  97. 

Broad-churchmen,  537;  characteris- 
tics, 539. 

Brooke,  John,  199. 

Brooks,    Bishop    Phillips,    104,   506, 

537,  541,  544- 
Brown,  Isaac,  138. 
Brown,  John,  88. 
Brown,  Marmaduke,  1 16. 
Brown,  Samuel,  88,  126,  131. 
Brownell,  Bishop,  433,  439,  441,  442, 

500. 
Bucknell,  Charles,  120. 
Buenos  Ayres,  446. 
Bull,    William   Treadwell,   230;  "A 

Short  Memorial,"  231. 
Burgess,    Bishop   George,    361,    480, 

487,  493- 

Burke,  Master,  16,  18. 

Burlington  College,  480. 

Butler's,  Bishop,  statement,  269. 

Byles,  Dr.  Mather,  102,  116. 

Cabot,  3. 

Calvert,  Charles,  73,  75. 

Calvert,  Leonard,  58. 

Calvert,  Philip,  61. 

Campbell,  Dugald,  269. 

Caner,  Henry,  136. 

Canon  on  Ritual,  533. 

Canon  on  Vestments,  532. 

Carey,  Arthur,  474. 

Carleton,  Sir  Guy,  290. 

Carolina,  222  ;  constitution,  223. 

Carteret,  Sir  John,  190. 

"  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in 
the  United  States  Considered,"  289  ; 
analysis,  291  ;  not  the  Church  of 
England  in  America,  but  the  Amer- 
ican Church,  295. 

Cathay,  3. 

Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine,  527. 

Cathedral  system,  526,  529. 

Cecil,  Robert,  15. 

Chambers,  John,  180. 

Chandler,  Dr.  Thomas  Bradley,  153, 
154,  200,  315,  356;  "Appeal  to 
the  Public,"  201,  202,  273;  letter 
to  S.  P.  G.,  273. 


Charles  I.,  29,  222. 

Charles  IL,  31,  61,  62,  122,  163,  222. 

Charleston,  characteristics  of,  229, 339. 

Chase,  Bishop  Philander,  494;  dio- 
ceses of  Ohio  and  Illinois,  436,  487. 

Chauncy,  Dr.,  126,  152,  154. 

Checkley,  John,  98 ;  polemics,  99,  ill. 

Cheney,  Dr.  C.  E.,  536. 

Childs,  George  W.,  4. 

China,  447;  missions  to,  515;  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible,  516. 

Chittenden,  Bethuel,  420. 

Chowans,  239. 

Christ  Church,  Boston,  100,  104. 

Church  architecture,  458. 

Church  newspapers,  458. 

Church  of  England,  10,  12,  20,  23, 
26,  30,  41 ;  separation  from,  48,  74, 
98,  IIS,  223. 

Church  preparatory  schools,  512;   for 

girls,  513- 

Church  Temperance  Society,  549- 

Churches  and  chapels  on  the  continent 
of  Europe,  521. 

"  Churchman,"  459,  479- 

Claggett,  Bishop  T.  J.,  390,  392,  397, 
472. 

Clap,  President,  108,  135,  145. 

Clarendon  settlement,  222,  223. 

Clark,  Bishop,  506,  533,  537. 

Clay,  Henry,  436. 

Clayborne,  60. 

Clayton,  Thomas,  207. 

Clinton,  George,  351. 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  161,  313. 

Cobb,  Bishop,  477. 

Cod,  Cape,  8. 

Coit,  Dr.  Henry  Augustus,  512. 

Coke,  Dr.,  405,  406,  408. 

Cole,  Samuel,  117. 

Colebatch,  Mr.,  76,  273. 

Colonial  church,  summary,  266;  the 
S.  P.  G.,  266;  state  patronage  and 
the  clergy,  267;  propagation  by 
mutilation,  no  bishop,  theological 
education,  267 ;  attempts  to  obtain 
bishops,  268 ;  donations,  269 ;  in- 
est  in  America,  270;  opposition, 
274  ;  union  of  non-Episcopal 
churches,  275 ;  imperfect  estimate 
of  a  bishop's  office,  278. 

Colored  clergy,  518. 


INDEX. 


587 


Columbia  College,  443,  509. 
Commissioners  for  Maryland,  72. 
Commissioners    of    Foreign     Planta- 
tions, 32. 
Common   Prayer,  Book  of,   4,  30,  54, 
67,  86,  88,  92,  108,  134,  165,  170, 
213,  346,  348'  357>  362,  Z^Z,  401, 
533.  552- 
Compton,  Bishop,  t,1. 
Congregational  church,  first,  87. 
Congregational  missionaries,  29,  387. 
Connecticut,    122;   first    building    for 
the  Church  of  England,  132;   con- 
versions, polemics,  139;   appeal  to 
the    legislature,     140;    Whitefield, 
141  ;   action  for  the  nationalization 
of  the  church,  312,  337. 
Consecration    of   the    first   American 

bishop,  323.  _ 

"  Constitution,     General    Ecclesiasti- 
cal,"   347,    349;    Sections    V.    and 
VIII.,     356;   Section   VIII.,    358, 
360. 
Convention  at  Elizabeth,  276. 
Convention-  of  Charleston,  339. 
Convention  of  New  Brunswick,  340. 
Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church,  first,  51. 
Coombe,  Thomas,  217. 
Cooper,  Dr.  Myles,  320,  324. 
Copeland,  Rev.  Mr.,  22. 
Copley,  Sir  Lionel,  63. 
Copp,  Jonathan,  263. 
Cornbury,  Lord,  172,  190,  199,  208. 
"  Corporation   for    the    Relief   of   the 
Widows  and  Orphans  of  the  Clergy," 

327- 
Cossit,  Mr.,  117. 
Crashaw,  William,  15. 
Croes,  Bishop  John,  433. 
Cross,  largest  in  the  world,  4. 
Cummings,  Archibald,  21 1,  212,  214. 
Cummins,  Bishop,  535. 
Cutler,  Timothy,  loo,  124;  life,  125; 

influence  in  Yale  College,  126-129, 

131- 
Cuttyhunk,  8. 
Dale,  Sir  Thomas,  18. 
Danish  ordination,  52,  53,  351. 
Dare,  Virginia,  7- 
Daughters  of  the  King,  548. 
Davenport,  John,  123. 


Davies,  Samuel,  41. 

Davies,  Thomas  F.,  215. 

De  Lancey,  Bishop  William  H.,  215, 

453>  472- 
Deaconesses,     524;     "St.    Faith's," 

525- 
Declaration  Concerning  Unity,  552. 
"  Declaration  of  Certain  Fundamental 

Rights  and  Liberties,"  304,  305. 
Dehon,   Bishop  Theodore,   392,  433, 

438-  ,        , 

Dennis,  Richard,  328. 

Diocesan  system,  524. 

Dix,  Morgan,  499. 

Doane,  G.  W.,   438,   452,   472;  trial, 

480,  487,  526,  554. 
Domestic  Missionary  Relief  Associa- 
tion, 522. 
Dougan,  Thomas,  164. 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  4,  6. 
Drummond,  William,  222. 
Duche,    Jacob,    213,    216,    325,    354, 

363. 
Dudley,  Bishop,  506. 
Dudley,  Joseph,  93. 
Duffield,  chaplain  to  the  Continental 

Congress,  298. 
Dutch,  162,   173,  204,  205. 

Earl,  Daniel,  245. 

East  India  Company,  li. 

Eastburn,  Manton,  423,  438. 

Eden,  Governor,  79,  80. 

Educational  institutions,  507-515. 

Edward  VI.,  3,  318. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  125. 

Eigenbrodt,  Dr.,  440. 

Eliot,  Dr.  Samuel,  442. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  4,  92. 

Ellington,  Edward,  264. 

Elliott,  Bishop,  492,  506. 

Endicott,  John,  87. 

Episcopal      Hospital,      Philadelphia, 

524- 

Episcopal  Theological  School,  Cam- 
bridge, 507. 

Episcopal  Theological  Seminary  at 
Alexandria,  Va.,  438. 

Evans,  Evan,  191,  207,  210. 

Faneuil,  Peter,  103. 

Fayerweather,  Mr.,  107. 

Ferrar,  John,  15. 

Ferrar,  Nicholas,  15,  22. 


588 


INDEX. 


Fletcher,  Francis,  4. 

Fletcher,  Governor,  165,  170. 

P'orrester,  Henry,  520. 

Franklin,    Benjamin,    213,    215,   307, 

342. 
Freeman,  James,  368. 
Frink,  Samuel,  264. 
Frobisher,  4. 
Fuller,  Captain,  60. 
"Fundamental      Principles,"      343; 
Section  IV.,  343  ;  Section  VI.,  344. 
Galleher,  Bishop,  506. 
Garden,  Alexander,  232,  233,  234. 
Gardiner,  Dr.,  119,  121. 
Gates,  Sir  Thomas,  11,  16,  18. 
Gates,  Thomas,  304. 
General    Association     of    Congrega- 
tional Ministers,  145. 
General    Convention    of    1785,    342; 
"Fundamental     Principles,"    343; 
' '  Proposed  Book, ' '  346, 35 7  ; ' '  Gen- 
eral   Ecclesiastical    Constitution," 
347 ;  Address  to  the  English  bish- 
ops, 351 
General    Convention    of    1789,    371; 
presentation  of  "  Act  of  the  Clergy 
of  Massachusetts   and  New  Hamp- 
shire," and  resolutions,  372  ;   adop- 
tion of   the  constitution,    374;   ad- 
journed,     375;       reopened,      376; 
committees    on    Prayer-book,   379; 
their  reports  adopted,  380. 
General  Convention  of  1844,  475. 
General  Theological  Seminary  of  New 
York,  437,  438,  439,  447,  472,  507. 
George  I.,  268. 
George  II.,  250. 
Georgia,  benevolent  character  of  the 

foundation  of  tlie  colony,  249. 
Germans,  36,  78,  205,  219. 
Gibson,  Richard,  89. 
Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  4,  5. 
Girls'  Friendly  Societies,  522. 
Glebes,  selling  of  the,  for  the  benefit 

of  the  State,  389. 
Glover,  missionary,  18. 
Godwin,  Morgan,  letter  to  Berkeley, 

32;  "Virginia's  Cure,"  33. 
Gordon,  John,  164. 
Gordon,  Patrick,  174,  212. 
Gordon,  William  B.,  520. 
Gorges,  Sir  Fernando,  9,  12,  86,  89. 


Gorges,  Robert,  86. 

Gosnold,  Captain  Bartholomew,  8. 

Grace  Church,  New  York,  458,  522, 

525- 
Graham,  Robert,  549. 
Graves,  John,  iii. 
Greece,  446. 

Greene  Foundation,  103. 
Grenville,  Sir  Richard,  6. 
Griffin,  Cyrus,  55,  355. 
Griffith,  Dr.,  53,  55,  359,  361. 
Griswold,    Alexander   V.,   410;    life, 

417-423;    "Autobiography,"  422, 

446. 
Griswold  College,  459. 
Guilford,  Lord,  72. 
Haiti,  missions  to,  516. 
Hakluyt,  Richard,  11,  12,  15. 
Hall,  Clement,   242 ;  summary,  243, 

245.  273- 

Hansen,  Francis  R.,  447. 

Hare,  Hobart,  514. 

Hariot,  Master,  6. 

Harris,  Henry,  loo,  131. 

Harris,  Bishop  S.  S.,  506. 

Harrison,  Peter,  104. 

Hart,  Governor,  72,  73. 

Harwood,  Dr.  Edwin,  537. 

Hastings,  Lady  Elizabeth,  269. 

Hawks,  C.  S.,  477. 

Hawks,  Francis  L.,  448,  477. 

Heathcote,  Caleb,  103,  175. 

Henderson,  Jacob,  72,  76. 

Henrico,  College  of,  18,  22,  26. 

Henry,  Sir  John,  27,  28. 

Henry,  Patrick,  44,  46,  48,  351. 

Henry  VII.,  3. 

Herbert,  Henry,  250. 

High  Court  of  Commissioners,  27. 
Hill,  John  R.,  446. 
Hobart,  John  Henry,  183;   life,  410- 
417;    Indians,  416;   General  l^heo- 
logical    Seminary,    417,    438,    439, 

445.  458. 

Hodges,  John,  235. 

Hoffman,  Dr.  Charles  F.,  508. 

Hoffman,  Dr.  E.  A.,  440. 

Holly,  James  T.,  516. 

Honeyman,  James,  106,  272. 

Hopkins,  Henry,  452;  "Letters  on 
the  Novelties  which  Disturb  our 
Peace,"  474,  478,  501,  502,  531. 


INDEX. 


589 


Hopkins,     Dr.    John     Henry,     529; 

"  Life"  of  his  father,  529. 
Houghteling,  James,  548. 
House   of    Bishops,    434,    445,    460, 

534,  535- 
Hoyt,  Colonel,  328. 
Hubbard,  Bela,  376. 
Huguenots,  35,    112,    173,    177,   222, 

224,  237. 
Hunt,  Robert,  12. 
Hunter,  Governor,  193,  194,  271. 
Huntington,  Dr.  William  R.,  506. 
Hurdy,  Samuel,  182. 
Hymnody,  458,  556. 
Illinois,  diocese  of,  436. 
Incarnation,    Church  of  the,    Garden 

City,  L.  I.,  526. 
Inglis,  Charles,    183,  186;  "Sons  of 

Liberty,"    187;    resignation,     188, 

273,315,  325,  354- 
Inness,  Alexander,  191. 
Ives,  Levi  Silliman,  451,  481. 
Jackson,  Reginald,  224. 
James  I.,  8,  11,  26,  92. 
James  II.,  31,  62,  164,  190,  318. 
Jamestown  Colony,  19. 
Japan,    missions  to,    515;    statistics, 

516. 
Jarratt,  Rev.  Mr.,  45,  46. 
Jarvis,  Dr.  Abraham,   292,   312,  316, 

365,  377,  39^- 

Jarvis,  Samuel  F.,  438. 

Jay  treaty,  386. 

Jefferson,  51. 

Jenkins,  Edward,  392. 

Jenny,  Robert,  214,  216,  218. 

Jesuits,  58,  170. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  127,  131,  134,  137, 
139;  letter  to  London,  143;  death, 
156,  181,  272. 

Johnson,  William  Samuel,  151,  153. 

Johnstop,  Gideon,  227,  230. 

Jones,  Lot,  446. 

Jones,  "  Present  State  of  Virginia," 
38. 

Jordan,  Robert,  90. 

Kelile's  "  Christian  Year,"  473. 

Keene,  Samuel,  %t,. 

Keith,  George,  96  ;  "Journal  of  Trav- 
els," 97,  123,  191,  192,  208,  210, 
236,  279. 

Keith,  Sir  William,  211. 


Kemp,  James,  433,  472. 

Kemper,  Bishop,  448,  493. 

Kendrick,  Dr.,  474. 

Kenyon  College,  436,  509. 

Kerfoot,  Bishop,  531. 

Key,  Francis  S.,  442. 

"  Kick  for  the  Whipper,  A,"  274. 

King,  Bishop,  22,  23. 

King's  Chapel,    Boston,   95,   97,  lOO, 

104,  136,  145,  167,  191,  368. 
King's  Chapel,  Providence,  iii,  112. 
King's  College,  New  York,  147,  169, 

181,   285;   Columbia  College,  443, 

509-. 
Kip,  Bishop,  493. 
Knights  of  Temperance,  549. 
Koven,  Dr.  James  De,  534,  536,  550. 
La  Pierre,  229,  231. 
Lane,  Ralph,  6. 
Laud,  Archbishop,  28. 
"  Lawes,     diuine,    morall    and    mar- 

tiall,"  19. 
Le  Jean,  Dr.,  227,  228. 
Learning,    Jeremiah,    312,    315,    316, 

365- 
Lechford,  Thomas,  88. 
Lee,  Bishop,  508,  531. 
Lehigh  University,  509. 
Leslie,  Jacob,  164. 
Liljeria,  446,  508. 
Littlejohn,  Bishop,  281. 
Locke,    John,     "  The     Fundamental 

Constitution  of  Carolina,"  223. 
Lockwood,  Henry,  447. 
Loe,  Thomas,  204. 
London  Colony,  11. 
Ludlum,  Richard,  228,  230. 
Lutherans,  394. 
Lyford,  John,  85. 
Macclenaghan,  William,  118,  219. 
Mackintosh,  Sir  John,  125. 
Madison,  Bishop,  46,  51,  388,  404. 
Magraw,  Dr.,  328. 
Mahan,  Milo,  472. 
Maine,  118. 

Malborn,  Godfrey,  155. 
Manateo,  7. 

Manning,  President,  342. 
Mansfield,  Dr.,  158,  365. 
Markham,  William,  205. 
M.irshall,  John  R.,  332. 
Marshall,  Samuel,  225. 


590 


INDEX. 


Marston,  Edward,  225. 

Martin,  David,  215. 

Mary,  Queen,  4. 

Maryland,  56;  proprietary  rule,  57; 
Act  of  Religious  Freedom,  59 ; 
the  "Protestant  Revolution,"  62; 
royal  government,  63 ;  Act  of  Es- 
tablishment, 67;  Act  of  Toleration, 
68;  dissenters,  71;  commissioners, 
72 ;  royal  province,  75  !  action  for 
the    nationalization   of  the   church, 

303- 

Mason,  John,  89. 

Mather,  Cotton,  94. 

Mather,  Increase,  94,  95. 

Maverick,  Samuel,  86. 

Mayhew,  Jonathan,  104,  150. 

McCoskry,  Bishop,  453. 

Mcllvaine,  Bishop,  431,  448,  452, 
4S0,  500. 

McSparran,  Dr.  James,  65,  107,  108, 
no,  112,  137. 

Meade,   William,  389,  480,  495,  497. 

Meath,  Robert,  222. 

Memorial  Movement,  485 ;  prelimi- 
nary report,  488. 

Mennonites,  205. 

Methodists,  47,  50,  78,  82,  337,  387, 
388,  404,  408. 

Mexico,  missions  to,  519. 

Mill  Creek  Church,  42. 

Missionary  Society,  Domestic  and 
Foreign,  444. 

Missions,  515-523. 

Mohawks,  176,  179. 

Moir,  James,  242. 

Montgomery,  General  Richard,  183. 

Moor,  Thoroughgood,  199. 

Moore,  Benjamin,  184,  189,  315, 
328,  394. 

Moore,  Clement  C,  438. 

Moore,  Sir  Henry,  183. 

Moore,  Richard  Channing,  410  ;  life, 
424-433 ;  opposition,  429 ;  Morn- 
ing Prayer,  430;  "Tracts  for  the 
Times,"  431. 

Morell,  William,  86. 

Morgan,  Morgan,  42. 

Morning  Prayer,  430. 

Morris,  Colonel  Lewis,  191. 

Morris,  Samuel,  41. 

Morton,  Andrew,  246. 


Morton,  Thomas,  85. 

Muhlenberg,  Dr.,  458;  character  and 

life,  483  ;  the  Memorial  Movement, 

485,  512,  524,  542,  555. 
Muirson,  George,  124,  174. 
Murray,  Dr.  Alexander,  t^Ji^  269,  342, 

354- 

Myles,  Samuel,  167. 

Narragansett  Church,  107. 

Narragansett  County,  life  in,  108. 

Nashotah,  459,  493,  508. 

Neau,  Elias,  177. 

New  English  Canaan,  86. 

New  Hampshire,  114. 

New  Lights  and  Old  Lights,  144. 

New  York,  162;  "religions  of  all 
sorts,"  164;  act  of  1693,  165; 
problem  of  the  church,  171;  In- 
dians, 176;  Convention  of,  331. 

Nichols,  Bishop,  4. 

Nichols,  Henry,  208. 

Nicholson,  Sir  PVancis,  62,  64,  66, 
105,  207,  231,  271. 

"  No  king,  no  bishop,"  45. 

" lYcti  silii,  sed  aliis,''''  249. 

Odenheimer,    Bishop    W.    H.,    215, 

531- 

Ogden,  Uzal,  396. 

Ogle,  Samuel,  77. 

Oglethorpe,  James  Edward,  249. 

Ohio,  diocese  of,  436. 

Onderdonk,  B.  T.,  474;  trial,  478; 
suspension,  479. 

Onderdonk,  Henry  U.,  451  ;  trial, 
475  ;  revocation  of  sentence,  476. 

Orson,  Jacob,  446. 

Orton,  Christopher,  262. 

Otey,  Bishop,  487,  495,  555. 

Oxford  Movement,  460,  46.1,  473,  474, 
475,  482. 

Paca,  Governor,  304. 

Palmer,  Solomon,  149,  1 50. 

Papists,  31,  60,  250. 

Parker,  James,  355. 

Parker,  Samuel,  332,  366. 

Parochial  Mission  Society,  547. 

Parties,  the  two,  Evangelical  and 
High-churchmen,  461  ;  character- 
ization, 462  ;  leaders,  467;  analysis, 
469 ;  development,  472. 

Pastorius,  205. 

Payne,  Bishop,  460. 


INDEX. 


591 


Penn,  William,  204. 

Pennsylvania,  action  for  the  national- 
ization of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  289,  338. 

Peters,  Richard,  216,  218,  307. 

Peters,  Samuel,  157,  402. 

Petre,  Father,  62. 

Pettigrew,  Charles,  391. 

Philadelphia,  Provincial  Convention 
of,  329  ;  resolutions,  330  ;  General 
Convention,  343,  371. 

Philadelphia  Divinity  School,  507. 

Phillips,  Francis,  210. 

Pierson,  John,  138. 

Pigot,  George,  iii,  124. 

Pilgrims,  9,  10,  85. 

Pilmore,  Joseph,  405. 

Pitkin,  William,  122. 

Plant,  Matthias,  131. 

Plymouth,  9;   colony,  II,  84. 

Pocahontas,  18,  20. 

Polk,  Bishop,  510. 

Popham,  Captain  George,  10,  11. 

Popham,  Sir  John,  9,  10,  12. 

Porlock,  Edward,  207. 

Potato,  first  knowledge  of,  6. 

Potter,  Alonzo,  459,  476,  487 ;  life 
and  character,  489,    502,  507,  524. 

Potter,  Bishop  Henry  C,  522,  527. 

Potter,  Bishop  Horatio,  508,  524. 

Powhatan,  20. 

Presbyterians,  41,  173,  237,  387. 

Price  Lectures,  103. 

Pring,  Martin,  9,  10. 

"  Proposed  Book,"  346,  357,  358, 
360,  362,  379. 

"  Protestant  Churchman,"  459,  479. 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  48  ;  or- 
ganization in  Virginia,  49,  52,  53; 
union,  54;  Maryland,  57;  Rhode 
Island,  105,  etc.  ;  transformation 
from  provincial  to  national  exist- 
ence, 287;   name,  303,  338,  550. 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
Confederate  States,  496. 

"  Protestant  Revolution,"  62. 

Provoost,  Dr.  Samuel,  176,  184,  188, 
343.  353.  359;  consecration,  363, 
390.  394- 

Punderson,  Ebenezer,  138,  145,  147, 
150. 

Furcell,  Henry,  339,  401. 


Puritans,  9;  in  Virginia,  25,  27,  28; 
Council  of  Six,  60,  84,  91,  133. 

Puttock,  Edward,  19 1. 

Quakers,  the,  30,  61,  64,  66,  68,  78, 
82,  191,  204,  206,  237,  279. 

Quarry,  Colonel,  208,  209. 

Queen's  Chapel,  Portsmouth,  114. 

Quincy,  Samuel,  250. 

Quintard,  Dr.,  510. 

Quo  warranto,  62. 

Racine  College,  459,  508. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  5,  7,  8,  9. 

Randolph,  Peyton,  41. 

Ratcliffe,  Robert,  94. 

Ravenscroft,  John  Stark,  449,  451. 

Reedman,  Andrew,  209. 

Reformed  Episcopal  Church,  534. 

Rhode  Island,  105,  108;  characteris- 
tics of  the  church,  1 13. 

Richebourg,  Philippe  De,  229. 

Ritualism,  529 ;  controversy,  53° ! 
"The  Law  of  Ritualism,"  530; 
canon,  533. 

Roanoke,  6. 

Robertson,  J.  J.,  446. 

Robinson  and  Roan,  41. 

Rolfe,  John,  20. 

Roman  Catholics,  64,  66,  69,  78. 

Rush,  Dr.,  342. 

Russell,  Thomas,  235. 

Saltonstall,  Gurdon,  103. 

Sandys,  15,  22. 

Schereschewsky,  Bishop,  translation 
of  the  Bible  into  the  Mandarin  lan- 
guage, 516. 

Seabury,  Samuel,  137,  138,  182. 

Seabury,  Samuel,  Jr.,  181,  182,  185, 
299,  312;  consecration  prepared, 
314,  315,  316,  320;  consecration 
fulfilled,  322,  336,  340,  349;  pol- 
icy, 367..  373.  390,  397- 

Seabury  Divinity  School,  508. 

Sewall,  Richard,  207. 

Seymour,  Colonel,  70- 

Seymour,  Dr.  G.  F.,  537. 

Sharpe,  Dr.,  Archbishop  of  York,  269. 

Sharpe,  Granville,  342,  350, 

Shattuck,  Dr.,  512. 

Shelton,  Daniel,  133. 

Sherred,  Jacob,  439. 

Shirley,  Governor,  103. 

Sisterhoods,  523. 


592 


INDEX. 


Skinner,  Bishop,  316;  reply  to  Berke- 
ley, 319.  342,  365- 

Slavery,  20 ;  introduction  in  Virginia, 
23,  32;  statistics,  40;  in  New 
York,  177,  224,  250. 

Smallpox,  39. 

Smith,  Benjamin  Bosworth,  452,  535. 

Smith,  Dr.  Hugh,  474. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  12  ;  "  Virginia," 
13;  "Advertisements  for  Unex- 
perienced Planters,"  13,  16,  26. 

Smith,  John  Cotton,  537,  547. 

Smith,  Dr.  Payne,  535. 

Smith,  Robert,  234,  339,  356,  391. 

Smith,  Sir  Thomas,  8. 

Smith,  William,  107,  213;  "  Present 
Situation  of  American  Affairs," 
214,  216,  299,  303;  life,  307;  char- 
acter, 308;  "  A  Sermon  on  the 
Present  Situation  of  American 
Affairs,"  309;  opposition,  311 ;  ob- 
jection, 321,  341,  345,  348,  359. 

Smith,  Dr.  Williamson,  442. 

Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,  66,  279. 

Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel 
in  Foreign  Parts,  66,  84,  95,  104, 
no,  122,  133,  206,  235,  266;  ex- 
penses for  the  church  in  America, 
280. 

Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Evan- 
gelical Knowledge,  460. 

Somers,  Sir  George,  16. 

Southgate,  Horatio,  460. 

Sparrow,  Dr.,  459,  544. 

Spergell,  L.  C,  214. 

Spotswood,  Alexander,  36. 

St.  Andrew's  Brotherhood,  548. 

St.  Luke's  Hospital,  484,  525. 

St.  Paul's  School,  Concord,  512. 

St.  Stephen's  College,  508. 

Standish,  Captain  Miles,  86. 

"  Star-spangled  Banner,"  442. 

State  idea  and  diocesan  principle,  456. 

Stewart,  Alexander,  244. 

Stockham,  Jonas,  26. 

Storer,  William,  59,  60. 

Storer,  William  Murray,  451. 

Stoughton,  Colonel,  165. 

Sturgeon,  William,  216. 

Stuyvesant,  Peter,  162. 

Swedes,  204,  205,  209,  219,  221. 


Swift,  Dean,  283. 

Talbot,  John,  191;  life,  192;  alleged 

consecration,    195;   Urmston,    197, 

199,  202,  208,  210,  239. 
Tawborough,  Convention  of,  391. 
Taylor,  Ebenezer,  240. 
Tenison,  Archbishop,  269,  279. 
Theological  literature,  506. 
Thirty-nine  Articles,    41,    292,    399, 

,474- 

Thomas,  J.,  174. 

Thomas,  John,  208. 

Thomas,  Samuel,  226,  231. 

Thompson,  Thomas,  203. 

Thorp,  George,  22,  25. 

Tobacco,  first  knowledge  of,  6 ;  sys- 
tematic cultivation,  20 ;  minister's 
salary,  21;  fine,  30,  34;  relief  act, 
43.  56,  79- 

Toleration  Act,  42. 

Tozer,  Bishop,  535, 

"  Tract  90,"  474. 

"  Tracts  for  the  Times,"  431. 

Trinity  Church,  Boston,  103. 

Trinity  Church,  New  York,  166; 
building  and  endowment,  169; 
parish,  393,  458. 

Trinity  College,  Hartford,  438,  442. 

Troup,  Alexander,  180. 

Tryon,  Governor,  158,  187,  245,  246, 
247,  309. 

Turner,  Samuel  N.,  438. 

Tyng,  Dr.,  448,  459,  475. 

Unitarians,  369. 

University  of  Pennsylvania,  215,  216. 

University  of  the  South,  510. 

Urmston,  John,  210,  239,  240. 

Usher,  John,  no. 

Vaughan,  Dr.,  200. 

Vesey,  William,  166,  168,  170,  172, 
174,  176,  178. 

Vestry  Act  of  1779,  303. 

Vicary,  John,  210. 

Vinegar  Bibles,  102. 

Vinton,  Alexander  H.,  487,  538,  544. 

Vinton,  Francis,  487. 

Virginia,  6 ;  first  charter,  1 1  ;  first 
history,  13;  second  charter,  14; 
tobacco,  20 ;  third  charter,  20 ; 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  23  ;  introduc- 
tion of  slavery,  23 ;  constitution, 
24;  Puritans,  25;  Indian  massacre. 


INDEX. 


593 


25 ;  the  charter  annulled,  26 ;  the 
Bishop  of  London,  37;  Jones's  de- 
scription, 2)^ ;  Baptists,  Methodists, 
45  ;  war  statistics,  47 ;  organization 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
49. 

Virginia  Theological  Seminary,  431, 
441,  447,  508. 

Wainwright,  Dr.  Jonathan  M.,  103, 
446. 

Wallingford,  Convention  of,  316. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  283. 

Walton,  Richard,  21 1. 

Warr,  Lord  De  la,  15,  17. 

Washburn,    Dr.    E.    A.,    506,    537, 

541- 

Way  mouth,  George,  9,  10. 

Wentworth,  Benning,  116,  420. 

Wesley,  Charles,  325,  405,  406. 

Wesley,  John,  45,  82,  249,  252; 
Wesley  in  America  and  Wesley  in 
England,  254,  265,  309,  335. 

West,  Dr.,  405. 

Western  Theological  Seminary,  Chi- 
cago, 507. 

Weymouth,  Lord,  236. 

Wharton,  Dr.,  392,  445. 

"  Whip  for  the  American  Whig,"  274. 

Whipple,  Bishop,  "  Apostle  to  the 
Indians,"  492,  514,  538. 

Whipple,  Joseph,  112. 

Whitaker,  Alexander,  18;  "Good 
Newes  from  Virginia,"  19. 

Whitaker,  Bishop,  514. 

White,  John,  6. 

White,  William,  217;  "The  Case," 


289;  characteristic,  294;  life,  296; 
patriot,  297 ;  chaplain  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  298 ;  ecclesias- 
tical statesman,  299;  doctrines,  300, 
Z2>^^  337.  340.  345.  359;  consecra- 
tion,   363,    ni,    392,    405;  death, 

453- 
Whitefield,  George,  40,  141,  214,  233, 

255;  orphan  house,  256;   Bethesda 

College,  260;  will,  261,  265. 
Whitehouse,  Bishop,  526,  551. 
Wilde,  Dr.  George,  537. 
Wilkinson,  Christopher,  72. 
Willard,  Samuel,  94. 
William  IIL,  318. 
William    and   Mary,  31 ;  College  of, 

34.  38.  42.  388,  441- 
Williams,  Bishop  John,  506. 
Williamson,  Atkin,  224. 
Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh,  3. 
Wilmer,  James  Jones,  303. 
Wingfield,  Edmund,  II,   12. 
Winslow,  Edward,  148. 
Winthrop,  Governor,  122. 
Wolcott,  Governor  Oliver,  442. 
Woman's   Auxiliary  to  the   Board  of 

Missions,  522. 
Wood,  John,  62. 
Wyatt,  Sir  Francis,  24. 
Yale    College,    125 ;   address    to    the 

trustees,  126;  debate,  128,  145. 
Yammonsee  prince,  227. 
Yeamans,  John,  222. 
Yeardley,  Sir  George,  20,  22. 
Yeo,  John,  61,  220. 
Zouberbuhler,  Mr.,  263. 


Ube  Bmerican  CburcF)  Ibistor^  Series. 


By  Subscription, 


IN  Twelve  Volumes,  at  82.50  per  Volume 


Vol.  I. 

Vol.  II. 

Vol.  111. 

Vol.  IV. 

Vol.  V. 

Vol.  VI. 

Vol.  VII. 

Vol.  VIII.- 


Baptists,     . 
Congregationalists, 


Lutherans, 


Methodists, 


Rev. 


Rev. 


Presbyterians,   . 
Protestant  Episcopal, 
Reformed  Church,  Dutcii,  Rev. 
Reformed  Church 

Moravian,  . 


Vol.    IX.      Roman  Catholics, 


Vol.      X.- 


Vol.    XI. 


Vol.  XII.- 


The  Religious  Forces  of  the  United  States,  H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.D., 
Editor  of  The  Independent,  Supt.  Church  Statistics,  U.  S.  Census,  etc. 
Rev.  a.  H.  Newman,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Professor  of  Church  History,  McMaster 
University  of  Toronto,  Ont. 

Rev.  Williston  Walker,   Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Modern  Church  History, 
Theological  Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn, 

Rev.  H.  E.  Jacobs,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  in  the 
Ev.  Lutheran  Seminary,  Phila.,  Pa. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.D.,   LL.D., 

Editor  of  the  Nev^  York  Christian 
Advocate. 

Robert  Ellis  Thompson,  D.D., 
Philadelphia.  Pa. 

C.  C.  Tiffany,  D.D., 

New  York. 
E.  T.  CoRwiN,  D.D., 
Rector  Hertzog  Hall,  New  Brunswick,  N.J. 
German, Rfv.  J.   H.  Dubbs,  D.D., 

Professor  of  History,  Franklyn  and 
Marshall  College,  Lancaster,  Pa. 

Rev.  J.  T.  Hamilton,  D.D., 

Professor  of  Church  History,  Theological 
Seminary,  Bethlehem,  Pa. 

Rev.  T.  O'Gorman,  D.D., 

Professor  of  Church  History,  Catholic 
^University,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Allen,  D.D., 

Late  Lecturer  on  Ecclesiastical  History, 
Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Rev.  Richard  Eddy,  D.D., 

Providence,  R.  I, 
Rev.  Gross  Alexander,  D.D., 
Professor    Greek    and    N.   T.   Exegesis, 
Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  Thomas  C.  Johnson,  D.D., 

Professor     Ecclesiastical     History     and 
Polity,  Hampden-Sidney,  Va. 

Rev.  James  B.  Scouller,  D.D., 

Newville,  Pa. 
Rev.   R.   V.  Foster,  D.D., 
Professor  Biblical  Exegesis,  Cumberland 
University,  Lebanon,  Tenn. 

Rev.  R.  B.  Tyler,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Prof.  A.  C.    Thomas,  M.A., 

Haverford  College,  Haverford,  Pa. 
R.    H.   Thomas,   M.D.,   Baltimore,  Md. 
Rev.   D.   Berger,  D.D.,  Dayton,  Ohio. 

Rev.  S.  p.  Spreng, 
Editor  Evangelical  Messenger,  Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Rev.  Samuel  Macauley  Jackson, 

New  York. 


Unitarians, 

Universalists, 
M.  E.  Church, 


So, 


Presbyterians,  So.,  . 

United  Presbyterians, 
Cumb.  Presbyterians, 

Disciples,    . 

Friends, 

United  Brethren,     . 
Ev.  Association, 

Bibliography,    . 


Date  Due 


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